The Home Office is in talks of developing a code word to be used in pharmacies for abuse victims

The Home Office is in discussions in developing a code word to be used in pharmacies by customers who need help, following the success of charities and pharmacies supporting victims during COVID-19. The ‘UK SAYS NO MORE’ campaign, successfully launched by Hestia on 1 May 2020, saw vulnerable people going into Superdrug, Morrisons, Boots and independent pharmacies where consultation rooms were used as individual spaces for those encountering domestic abuse.

Boots has announced that its pharmacies were used more than one-hundred times within the first seven days of the campaign.

A spokesperson for Hestia, Lyndsey Dearlove, stated: “Access to private space has dissipated over the last ten to fifteen years, for example, there are no longer so many phone boxes. All these tools are great for linking us with other people, but they increase the opportunity to be monitored. There is a fear that people can’t use their phone to ask for help. We are looking at how we can increase the ability to access safe spaces. We provided a framework and domestic abuse awareness training. But it was the passion and desire of pharmacists that mobilised it, and they deserve the credit”.