RSPH and the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) highlighted the need for domestic violence and abuse (DVA) to be treated as a public health priority at a conference on the issue held on Thursday 15 September 2016. The call comes as a survey of health visitors by the iHV reveals that more than two in five (42%) think services to support families affected by DVA in their area have got worse in the past two years, with less than a third (32%) saying they had not got worse.

There are more than 11,000 health visitors in England – specialist community public health nurses who work closely with families with children under five, particularly from vulnerable or deprived groups, to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent illness. The iHV survey of health visitors in England also found:

Almost half (47%) of health visitors believe a challenged couple relationship between parents is impacting on their children in more than one in five (20%) of the families they work with.

Almost two thirds (62%) of health visitors say the families they work with affected by DVA are not empowered to do anything about the situation.

With the country having recently been gripped by the story of Helen Titchener in BBC Radio 4 soap The Archers, awareness of DVA in the UK is at an all-time high. Today’s conference will help policy makers and health professionals do more to support affected families and reduce the associated health and wellbeing risks for children.

Shirley Cramer CBE, Chief Executive of RSPH, said: “Domestic violence and abuse often underpins a wide range of other health and wellbeing issues, especially mental health problems, not just for partners but also for children in affected families. Tackling DVA and its effects should therefore be a major public health priority at both a local and national level. Domestic abuse extends beyond physical violence to controlling and manipulative behaviour, and is far more common than is generally acknowledged – with the recent Archers storyline having raised awareness of the plight of real life Helens, this is a good time to be considering how both the core and wider public health workforce can do their bit to tackle the issue.”

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director of iHV, said: “It is of no surprise to us that health visitors see so much domestic abuse in families. Tolerance of this will reduce if it becomes a much more conspicuous public issue, as has happened with the Archers storyline. Domestic violence and abuse impacts not only on the recipient but on her/his ability to parent, so hence on children, which will ultimately have a societal impact, so addressing the scale of this must be seen as a public health priority.”