Domestic violence: Geelong footballer Jimmy Bartel launches campaign to help people recognise signs
Geelong footballer Jimmy Bartel said he has been overwhelmed by public support since speaking about his own experience of domestic violence.
Bartell was at the launch of a campaign to help people recognise the signs of intimate partner violence.
The three-time premiership footballer and Brownlow Medallist opened up earlier this year about his violent and emotionally-abusive father.
Bartel helped to launch the national Support a Friend campaign in Melbourne on Sunday which aims to assist people to better recognise and understand domestic violence.
He said he has been disturbed by the scale of the problem.
"It's been very positive the reaction, the support that I have received," he said.
"But it has also been pretty saddening that people are actually relating to it, and the amount of people relating to it on a personal level."
Bartel outlined how his father, Terry, would attack his mother even after the couple separated when he was 12 months old.
He said on one occasion his father threw his then 10-year-old sister against a wall like a rag doll after she tried to intervene to help her mother.
Bartel said his father would always attack his mother from behind and make her admit it was her fault for making him so angry.
"I think as you get older you understand what it was like because when you're younger and you're in it that's all you know," he said.
"I think it probably affects your personality and the way you interact with people and I think you're more anxious and on edge and you tend to be a little bit more reserved."
He said his father, who died of cancer in 2010, only went to one of his football games and claimed the now 32-year-old Geelong star would never be as good a player as he was.
Bartel said using his high-profile in the football world to speak out about his own experience of domestic violence had been positive for his immediate family.
"For the first time recently we sat down as a family, my mum and two sisters, essentially it was like a big therapy session and it's probably the most we've ever spoken about it," he said.
Campaign aims to give advice on how to support women
The Support a Friend campaign has been set up by the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service, 1800RESPECT.
Jane French from 1800RESPECT said the initiative provides a list of do's and don'ts to help someone experiencing domestic violence.
"There's lots of campaigns about prevention and what we can do as a society to help prevent this problem," she said.
"But given we have a current one [problem with domestic violence] we actually felt that we needed to give friends and family some tools to support women."
Some of the advice includes taking people's concerns seriously, listening and information on where to get help.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au