New service provides help for men in crisis
Published Date: 29 November 2010
A NEW group providing support services to men in crisis has been formed in Northern Ireland.
Mensaid NI claims men here are being disadvantaged in many areas of health, social welfare, housing and the family courts.
The new group will also offer victim support services to men
who are suffering all forms of abuse in domestic situations.
Although the province's well-documented domestic violence inflicted on women is the source of much concern, Pete Morris of Mensaid said there are also male victims being damaged who fear losing their children if they can't persevere.
Mr Morris said: "Because society expects men to live up to some kind
of macho image, it is unbelieveably diffcult for men who suffer psychological or physical abuse in
the home to seek help.
"For anyone who's never experienced it it's hard to explain, but when a man reaches the point where he can't take anymore, it's only then that he confronts the reality that the mother of his children holds every ace in the pack."
The group's spokesman said they have "hit the ground running" and have already had face-to-face meetings with various Stormont departments and committees, the housing executive and several family law experts.
"The lengths some fathers have to go to have any contact at all with
their children is beyond belief and that is why many abused men try
to put up with their situation," Mr Morris said.
Parental alienation is the term used for the greatest fear of those fathers who have a strong bond with their children but fnd themselves
facing a family break-up.
Mr Morris said: "We have been contacted by men who face all kinds of diffculties, but parental alienation – the bond between them and their children being broken while they fight for access through the courts – is one of the worst.
Another is the fnancial hardship of the maintenance payments which
are sometimes impossible to meet by the time someone pays for a roof
over their head."
Mensaid is currently seeking funding to establish a drop-in centre and eventually aims to provide a refuge for male victims of domestic abuse.
Further information is available via the website www.mensaidni.co.uk or by contacting 07512462375.
The new group will also offer victim support services to men
who are suffering all forms of abuse in domestic situations.
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Although the province's well-documented domestic violence inflicted on women is the source of much concern, Pete Morris of Mensaid said there are also male victims being damaged who fear losing their children if they can't persevere.
Mr Morris said: "Because society expects men to live up to some kind
of macho image, it is unbelieveably diffcult for men who suffer psychological or physical abuse in
the home to seek help.
"For anyone who's never experienced it it's hard to explain, but when a man reaches the point where he can't take anymore, it's only then that he confronts the reality that the mother of his children holds every ace in the pack."
The group's spokesman said they have "hit the ground running" and have already had face-to-face meetings with various Stormont departments and committees, the housing executive and several family law experts.
"The lengths some fathers have to go to have any contact at all with
their children is beyond belief and that is why many abused men try
to put up with their situation," Mr Morris said.
Parental alienation is the term used for the greatest fear of those fathers who have a strong bond with their children but fnd themselves
facing a family break-up.
Mr Morris said: "We have been contacted by men who face all kinds of diffculties, but parental alienation – the bond between them and their children being broken while they fight for access through the courts – is one of the worst.
Another is the fnancial hardship of the maintenance payments which
are sometimes impossible to meet by the time someone pays for a roof
over their head."
Mensaid is currently seeking funding to establish a drop-in centre and eventually aims to provide a refuge for male victims of domestic abuse.
Further information is available via the website www.mensaidni.co.uk or by contacting 07512462375.
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