The secrecy of abuse often finds family members isolated, hyper-focused and surviving alone in a state of crisis. These are a few of the explicit effects of repeating patterns of abuse. Unfortunately, it is often the implicit effects of abuse that create the long-term impacts on individuals and families requiring the need for essential and continued support, resource and healing. 

IMpact...

• A need for system involvement: Probation, CPS, Family Court
  • This can result from an arrest after an abusive incident and can provide support for the family. 
  • Even when the involvement of these agencies means more support for the family, and an additional layer of safety, their presence can be a source of shame or embarrassment and added worry, especially if children are involved.  
• Loss of income, or a much needed job
  • This can be true for either the person who is hurting the family, or the one being hurt.
  • Financial stress can add to the household stress, and puts families at greater risk of further abusive incidents and can reduce access to resources.
• Displaced from home
  • Either through removal by authorities, or through a need to provide safer shelter for oneself, children or pets.
  • If this is a result of an OFP, DANCO or other court ordered mandate, the division of the providers of the family can mean permanent loss of housing, lack of access to childcare, or added financial strain.
• Loss of relationships
  • Abuse destroys relationship viability. 
  • Often this fear of loss is a primary underlying component within the "Why's" of the abusive behavior.
  • The loss is felt between partners, and parents and children.
• Decreased stability
  • Stability on all levels can be compromised both while the abuse is occurring and after the abuse has stopped.
  • This may be physical stability, emotional, psychological, financial or functional.
• Mental health
  • Many individuals who are experiencing abuse, either as a child witness, a victim/survivor or the active user of abuse show significant increase in symptoms of depression, anxiety, trauma and PTSD. 
  • If mental illness is present prior to or during an abusive relationship, the symptoms may worsen or become more complex, and additional support may be required.
• Substance use
  • It substance use or abuse is a factor in families experiencing abuse, it can become a contributing factor to the exacerbation of incidents. 
  • Chemical use may become a coping strategy used by family members to 'self-medicate' to numb their experience of the abuse or to feel capable of survival.
• Children
  • The impact of family violence and domestic abuse on children is multi-faceted, complex, and often requires the support of a professional trained to work with children experiencing violence in their homes.
  • Children do not have to be direct victims of abuse to be severely affected developmentally, socially, emotionally or psychologically by the acts and family impacts of the abuse.
  • Research shows the younger the child is, the more damaging and long term the effects of violence may be. 
  • Children who experience abuse, either directly or indirectly, have a significantly higher risk of becoming adult victims or choosing to abuse their intimate partners, or their own children, as adults.