Season 3 Episode 2: Perpetrators’ Weaponization of Mental Health and Addiction Against Survivors

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About This Episode

Have you ever seen survivors’ mental health or substance use issues turned against them by a domestic violence perpetrator? Have you been concerned about a domestic violence survivor’s treatment being sabotaged by an abusive partner? In this podcast, David and Ruth explore these questions and talk about how a perpetrator pattern–based approach can help protect survivors against these behaviors.

The show is broken down into three major themes:

  • What is weaponization of mental health and addiction?

  • Why are systems are vulnerable to these manipulations?

  • How we can fix (or perpetrator-proof) our systems?

David and Ruth explore strategies for improving clinical practice including assessing how current coercive control is impacting access to treatment. They discuss how important it is to recontextualize survivors' issues back  perpetrator's patterns of behavior. David & Ruth examine the implications of documentation and reporting to family court and child protection.

Additional Resources

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Season 3 Episode 3: Minisode on Worker Safety & Well-Being: When Workers Have Their Own Histories of Abuse
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Season 3 Episode 1: "This is a collective male problem:" An interview with international journalist Grant Wyeth