Tuesday 02-12-2014 - 12:06

My name is Louisa Power and I am this year’s student officer for Nursing and Community Health. I am currently in my 3rd year of my BA(HONS) Nursing studies degree and a student information officer for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

  Each trimester the team of student officers are expected to contribute to a blog about the activities they have been involved in within GCU. The last few weeks have gone at  an astronomical pace and have been jam packed with activities and events; this truly is an exciting and dynamic time to be involved in the student’s association.

  One particular upcoming event I am proud to be getting involved in is the “16 Days of  Activism”. 

  But first of all what is the “16 Days of Activism”?

  The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign that starts on the 25th of  November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and ends on the 10th of  December, Human Rights Day. The campaign hopes to raise awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue at the local, national, regional and international level.

  This year the School of Nursing and the GCU Woman’s Society are working in tandem to raise    awareness of the pertinent issues of gender-based violence and inspiring women at GCU to        become leaders. So start off the campaign, let’s talk about a phenomena that effects roughly 1 in 4 women across the UK: domestic violence.

 

Domestic violence can be perpetrated by partners and ex-partners and can include physical abuse (assault and physical attack including a range of behaviour), sexual abuse (acts which degrade and humiliate individuals and are perpetrated against their will including rape) and mental and emotional abuse (threats, verbal abuse, racial abuse, withholding money and other types of controlling behaviour such as isolation).

Key facts:

   •   Violence against women is widespread, affecting women of any age, class, race, religion, sexuality or ability.

   •   Women are most at risk from men they know.

   •   Factors which may increase women's vulnerability to some types of violence include age, disability and poverty.

   •   When asked, significant numbers of women describe patterns of abusive behaviour and repeat victimisation, rather than discrete    assaults.

   •  Women experience violence at different points in their lives, and significant numbers of women experience more than one type of        violence.

I collaborated with my colleagues in the nursing department to raise awareness of domestic violence as it is statistically likely that we will care for an individual living with abuse of some form when we graduate. Recently the RCN called for both students and qualified nurses to be vigilant in recognising signs of abuse and underlined the importance of further training to empower staff to initiate sensitive conversations and how to support survivors. Some of the behaviours we emulate as a society can actually compound the problem of domestic abuse and create an unhealthy and unsupportive environment for a woman to disclose abuse. 

However, supporting survivors of domestic abuse is not limited to those working in the caring professions, everyone can help to raise awareness and support survivors. Here is some guidance on how you can become part of the solution to raise awareness of domestic violence:

              

Although the literature suggests that women are more likely to become victims of domestic violence than men, this does not suggest men cannot be subjected to violence at the hands of a partner. As well as studying nursing, I work as a volunteer councillor at Rape Crisis. I have become aware that both men and women can be abusers and that abuse can be perpetrated within both heterosexual and LGBT+ relationships. I have asked Nadia from the GCU LGBT+ Society to do a guest blog for the 16 Days of Activism Facebook page to generate further awareness specifically within this particular community.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind all female and LGBT+ students that the ‘safe space’ is now officially open for use in the Student’s Association (NH 212) and if you wish to speak to anyone in regards to domestic violence, a support service is offered in The Positive Living Centre on campus.

So that’s all from me just now! Please stay tuned for further announcements on what to expect from the 16 Days of Activism and how you can get involved.

Louisa