Women’s Refuge routinely carries out assessments with women reaching out for assistance to determine their level of risk. Taking a data driven approach, the first phase of Safer When, Safer How analysed 3500 assessments completed over the past year.

Dr Ang Jury ONZM, CEO, Women’s Refuge says the initial results of this analysis were startling.

“We knew that many women who reached out for help were at a critical point, however we were stunned at the high number of women that are at risk of extreme violence or death. We are not talking about minor incidents here but women whose lives are at risk.”

It also found that women reach out to Refuge when the risk to them is highest. Nearly half experienced a worsening of the abuser’s physical violence in the weeks before reaching out to Refuge. Sixty percent saw intensified intimidating behaviour right before accessing Refuge, and nearly 60 percent found that their abusers stepped up the violence each time they put any safety measures in place. (From the media release). Record #8606