The biggest challenge
Sexual and serious violent crime has the capability to have a significant impact on your loved one’s mental health. Not only that, it can cause serious mental health problems for those closest to them too and that is something that is often ignored or receives a very low priority, both from health care professionals and 3rd party victims of crime themselves.
The process of treatment, diagnosis, support and care for people living with significant mental health problems is incredibly complex and touches almost every aspect of care and support 3rd party vicitms of crime offer to their loved one.
If you want to get the best out of the services on offer and support your loved one, it’s pretty much essential that you become an expert in your loved ones care.
If you live in the UK, we may be able to offer you personal and practical support. You can self-refer by using this form. Wherever you live, the information, links and guidance on the pages listed below are based on years of hard-fought lived experience but services vary across the county both in terms of quality and design. Each section also contains tips, timesavers and an explanation of some of the more frustrating things you might encounter.
As you explore each option below, you may discover additional opportunities that are relevant to your area or situation.
Your own well-being and that of your loved one can be dramatically improved by making simple, structured changes to your life-style. Don’t dismiss it until you’ve tried it!
The more frequent mental health diagnoses associated with trauma are detailed here.
Understand the process for hospitalisation, your options and how to support your loved one if they are inpatient.
A brief explanation of the Mental Health Act with links to more detailed information, jargon-busting information and tips to negotiate your way through.
Caring is traumatic, stressful and acutely worrying at times. Preserving your own mental health for the long-haul is vital.
Putting it really simply, this is the bit you HAVE to get right, you have to understand and you need to fight for.
It’s like another language you have to learn. There are magic words that mean things you don’t think they do that have legal implications. After a few years, you understand most things quite well but at the beginning, you literally have no idea what’s going on.
