Shelter reports increased demand for domestic abuse advice

A Facebook advertising campaign on domestic violence run by Shelter Scotland to coincide with the last Old Firm football match resulted in a huge surge in visits to its web site from women looking for help and advice.

The charity reported a 600% increase in visits to the site’s domestic abuse information page, compared with previous weekends when the same adverts had been running.

There was also a dramatic increase in visits to the ‘Leaving Home in a Hurry’ section which went up from zero the previous week to 290 and the ‘Legal Action on Partners’ page visits increased by 100%.

Alison Watson, Head of Services at Shelter Scotland, said: “These figures show that hundreds, perhaps thousands of people across Scotland, mainly women, went online last weekend to find advice and help on issues related to domestic abuse.  And they weren’t just browsing. The average length of visit to our advice pages increased to several minutes.”

“We hope that lessons will be learned and that the link between Old Firm matches and increased domestic abuse levels can finally be broken. Otherwise, the cycle of abuse will continue and many more lives will be ruined.”