FAMILY VIOLENCE ACROSS THE LIFE CYCLE

  DEDICATION TO ST. FILOFTEIA (7th of Dec).

 FAMILY VIOLENCE includes child abuse, intimate partner violence and elder abuse. It also includes abuse that occurs between other family members, for example siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents and in-laws.

Abuse is not only physical,

but can be sexual,

emotional (eg humiliation, harassment),

economic (eg restricting access to money),

and social (eg isolation from family and friends).

While many families have fights, abuse incorporates elements of fear and control by one family member over another. For children, witnessing family violence can also be considered child abuse.

Family violence can have a major adverse impact on health and wellbeing. Intimate partner violence is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity for women of child-bearing age. Exposure to childhood abuse, either direct or by witnessing family violence, is a risk factor for many health issues in adult life, such of obsity, high-risk sexual behaviour or mental health issues and can lead to a range of health problems such as heart disease, suicide and cancer (Krug EG, The world report on violence and health, Lancet 2014).

2. The United Nations children's agency UNICEF declared 2014 a devastating year for children, with as many as 15 million caught in conflict in Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Palestinian teritories. "Children have been killed while studying in the classroom and while sleeping in their beds; they have been orphaned, kidnapped, tortured, recruited, raped and even sold as slaves ". (Reuters, 9/12/14

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