Source: Lucia Osborne-Crowley via Women’s Agenda
Australian of the Year and anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty has launched a phone app aimed at teaching young women how to recognise signs of unhealthy and abusive relationships.
Batty has been campaigning tirelessly against domestic and family violence since her son Luke was murdered by his father on February 12, 2014.
She hopes the app, called iMatter and hosted by counseling service Doncare, will be a revolutionary preventative measure against domestic violence by empowering young women to leave unhealthy relationships before they become abusive. The app helps young women to identify signs of an unhealthy relationship and signs of an abusive partner, such as overprotective, possessive and jealous behaviours.
Batty hopes to use the app to promote greater understanding of the fact that domestic violence is not limited to physical abuse.
“I think throughout our communities, at any age, we’re learning it’s not just about physical violence,” she told the media on Saturday.
“Violence is also psychological, which includes verbal.
“It’s not just about wearing a black eye and physical harm, it’s far more complex than that.”
The need for this kind of app was highlighted by recent Australian research revealing that 22% of women under the age of 20 have experiences domestic violence and, even more worryingly, that many young women misinterpret abusive behaviour such as excessive jealousy and controlling tendencies as signs ofaffection.
“We hear again and again from young people that they are putting up with things in relationships that are really very disrespectful and sometimes frightening,” said Doncare director Carmel O’Brian.
O’Brian said young women feel they are rarely warned about the very fine line between controlling behaviours and abuse… Read More>>
Rosie Batty will be speaking at the Sydney Mental Health & Wellbeing of Young People seminar 2015.
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