Did you know that 1 woman a week dies from domestic violence in Australia!

This statistic in itself is shocking. However the survivors of family and domestic violence can suffer long lasting consequences. These consequences include the obvious physical impact as well as  the less visible cost of an individual’s mental and emotional well being.

It is important to remember that our behaviour is often a reflection of our values and habits. As a society we need to think deeply about how we view gender, stereotypes, power and relationships. Are we really doing the right thing by ourselves and others when we are quick to judge, dismiss or accept?

We all have a responsibility working on this social issue. Unfortunately ‘difficult’ issues such as domestic violence are often swept under the carpet and ignored. For example, just yesterday a friend of ours was on a work site having smoko with a group of young men. During the idle chatter one of the guys came out with a very inappropriate domestic violence ‘joke’.  Most of his audience thought it hilarious however our friend did not. His reaction was to get up and walk away in disgust.

Whilst it is admirable that our friend didn’t want to condone this insensitive work site banter – as evidenced by this decision to walk away, I was wondering if we could all do more to actively let our displeasure be known. One way we can do this is to wake up our ‘clever brains’ and start to actively voice to our friends, colleagues and family that tolerating violence is just wrong in so many ways – physically, psychologically, habitually, emotionally, morally and socially.

Perhaps we need to get a domestic violence campaign going similar to the ‘One Punch Can Kill’.

The current advertising campaign against domestic violence is a start but I would love to have your input on how we as a society (and as individuals) can start to right this wrong.