Were you abused?

Statistics vary, but around 20% of us are thought to suffer some form of sexual abuse before the age of eighteen.

Survivors come from all walks of life, all backgrounds, and abuse happens to both females and males, rich and poor, across all cultures. 

Many victims of childhood sexual abuse will have been abused by someone in the family or a close family friend, and the abuser can be either male or female, rich or poor, teacher, step dad, mother, babysitter, vicar, brother or anyone.

Abuse by strangers seems more prevalent, but this is, in part, because of the increased press coverage. It remains true that the majority of children know their abuser.

If you have been abused, please know that you are NOT alone, and it is possible to overcome the devastating effects that abuse can have on your day to day existence.

If you were abused and you are having a hard time, please get in touch and we will do all we can to support you.

Were you abused as a child?

If so you are not alone, it is currently estimated that around 1 in 6 boys will suffer some form of sexual abuse before their 18th birthday, and there will be even more who have suffered other forms of abuse. If so then there are literally thousands of men in the UK who are survivors of abuse.

The challenges that men who have been abused experience can be different to those that are faced by women. For example there is the lack of services for male survivors, so even finding someone to talk to can be quite difficult!

 

Have you in the past, or are you currently: experiencing domestic abuse?

Domestic abuse is another form of violence which, despite some public perception, does affect men as well as women, and again this poses some unique challenges for men.

There are perceptions of masculinity, the worry that the man will be accused of being the abuser, and of course lack of services is also a major problem.

At 18 Plus you can find someone to talk to who does understand the difficulties that you might be facing, and talking to someone really can help.

We think that the ‘cycle of abuse’ is ridiculous, and we know that what happened to you as a child or as a spouse has no reflection whatsoever on the man that you are today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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18 Plus

Currently, in Dundee and surrounding areas, there are no support services at all for males or older people who have been abused or are at risk of abuse. Because of this we set up the charity 18 Plus.

Older and vulnerable people

Older people are particularly at risk of abuse and many are isolated and vulnerable. There is an increasingly aging population and while it is widely recognised that older people are an at risk group, little is being done to address this.

Through research we have concluded that older, more vulnerable people:

We found that many older people are survivors of abuse and many need support and personal safety awareness to help them avoid becoming victims.

Our evidence based Senior VIP Programme can help agencies working with older people to address these issues.

Male survivors of childhood sexual abuse

Because men are less likely to speak up, it is much harder to quantify the instances of sexual abuse on boys. Although research is understandably conflicting, as many as 1 in 6 boys are thought to be sexually abused before their 18th Birthday.

Most of the organizations that serve survivors of sexual abuse have been created by women for women. Because so few people know that large numbers of males are sexually abused, male survivors have been unseen, neglected and therefore underserved.

We aim to redress that imbalance by providing support and information services for male survivors.

How can 18 Plus help?

We are the only current service provider for male survivors in the Tayside area.

We are here to offer support and information to men who have been or are being abused in any way. We can talk to you via the phone, over the internet, or face to face at our premises in Dundee city centre.

We can also talk to you if you are a person who would like help to understand and support a male survivor of abuse, whether you are from an agency or if you are simply a friend/family member to the individual.

We are also always keen to hear from people who would like to help us to help others by volunteering.

For more information

We offer a drop in facility as well as support by telephone, email and online chat. You can call us on 01382 206222 or email us. Please see our contacts page for details.