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A campaigner has said domestic abuse is rampant among young teenagers and more should be done to tackle it.<\/p>\nA campaigner has said domestic abuse is rampant among young teenagers and more should be done to tackle it.<\/p>\n
Ainie Grainger, 21, from Dublin, suffered mental, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her father from an early age.<\/p>\n
Ms Grainger, who has been campaigning on behalf of victims since she was 13, advises youngsters about how to deal with domestic violence.<\/p>\n
She said she has helped hundreds of men and women through her work with her mother Priscilla and their campaign group Stop Domestic Violence in Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI use Snapchat and Instagram for an advice service, people can message me and it won\u2019t look suspicious on their phones,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get so many messages from young people who are either suffering violence from a parent or their partner \u2013 and some of them are so young.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith young people these days, domestic abuse is rampant, I think the amount of drugs available to young people adds to the problem, and a lot of the time young people might grow up looking at their parents\u2019 toxic relationship as a model and repeat the pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cWhen you\u2019re starting out in relationships you don\u2019t know what\u2019s normal and parents have no idea what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth boys and girls come to me and tell me what\u2019s happening but I don\u2019t know of any dedicated service for young adults who have suffered domestic violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI use social media to let them know they\u2019re not alone, I\u2019ve been through it too and I\u2019ve come out the other side and I\u2019m living the life I want, it\u2019s not always easy but you can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Grainger has called for more services for young people who have witnessed or experienced domestic violence, and the consequences that come with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consequences are always ongoing, panic attacks, anxiety, lasting mental health problems,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are services for women and services for children but I think a dedicated service is necessary to help young adults and teenagers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t start addressing the problems at that age, they\u2019ll manifest into something else or you\u2019re doomed to repeat the pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said society must move away from preconceived ideas of what domestic violence is and who the victims are.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have this image in their head of domestic violence and it\u2019s always so stereotypical when in reality it couldn\u2019t be further from what people think,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone can become a victim of domestic violence, it doesn\u2019t discriminate and it doesn\u2019t care about money or what you do for a living.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen abusers from all walks of life, some we\u2019ve dealt with are schoolteachers, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cPeople always think of women too, when that\u2019s not the case, we\u2019ve had messages from so many men, easily as much as women, and they are so embarrassed to come forward and say ‘this is happening to me but I must be doing something wrong, I must be the abuser.’<\/p>\n
\u201cMen are so often victims and no-one really talks about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2018, there were 16,994 disclosures of domestic violence against women noted during 19,089 contacts with Women\u2019s Aid Direct Services.<\/p>\n
The full number of domestic violence incidents in Ireland is unknown.<\/p>\n