We have developed a safety plan that you can work through with someone from a specialist agency, by yourself or with a trusted friend or family member. Some things that you may want to think about are:
- Set up supportive networks who can check-in on you to make sure that you are safe. This could include agencies that are supporting you, friends, family, colleagues or neighbours. If you don’t feel that you have anyone, local councils are setting up groups of volunteers who might be able to help. You could also use trips to the supermarket or pharmacy as an opportunity to let someone know that you don’t feel safe at home.
- Try to find time to spend away from the abusive person. This could be taking your daily exercise, spending time in a different room, in the garden, or with your headphones on. A routine might help you to factor in this time.
- Think about whether the abusive person could be monitoring your communications. Log out of social media after use, change passwords regularly and turn off notifications and message displays. Talk to the people in your supportive network about discrete ways that they can check how you are doing.
- If you are at risk of harm you may need to think about how you can get to the safest room in the house or get out the house safely and raise the alarm.
- During this uncertain time, you can try to calm situations down and move away from situations into safer rooms.
- You will know what antagonises your partner, consider what you can change at home to cope with the restrictions on your movements and what would potentially escalate any unhealthy behaviours from your partner.
- Where possible prepare for someone being ill so that they can be as far away from other members of the family as possible and be as comfortable as possible. You may need to think about what would happen if you were ill and how you would keep the children safe in this situation.
- If you are as serious risk of harm call the Police on 999