Please read before continuing
This website is for organisations and professionals seeking training, research and organisational support. It discusses domestic abuse, coercive control, suicidal distress and suicide, and may be difficult to read. Dual Risk CIC is not a crisis service and does not provide individual advice or emergency support.
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999. If you cannot speak, listen to the operator and, when prompted, press 55. For emotional support, call Samaritans free on 116 123.
For domestic-abuse support across the UK, use the national helplines listed on GOV.UK
Andrea Newton, Founder, Dual Risk CIC
See the whole risk. Respond with confidence.
Dual Risk helps professionals and organisations recognise and respond to suicide risk in the context of domestic abuse and coercive control.
Through practical training, organisational support and evidence-informed resources, we help people join the dots to stop people falling between the gaps in services.
Our work is relevant to local authorities, healthcare, housing, police, social services, domestic abuse professionals and the wider voluntary, community and public sector workforce who may come into contact with someone experiencing domestic abuse-related suicidal distress.
The Door Someone Walks Through Is Not Always The Full Story
In 2024/25, the VKPP identified 150 suspected victim suicides following domestic abuse in England and Wales, compared with 80 victims killed by a current or former partner. Even that figure is likely to underestimate the true scale.
Yet domestic abuse and suicide prevention are still too often approached through separate systems, services and pathways.
People can fall through the gaps.
A person may encounter police, housing, health services, an employer, a domestic-abuse organisation or a charity.
Being known to several services does not necessarily mean the full context has been understood, the dots have been joined or the person is safe, as we have seen from many DHR’s over the years. That is not to blame any individual, but instead to recognise that a community-wide response is required.
Coercive control matters. It can intensify suicidal distress while restricting a person's choices, freedom, access to support and ability to act on otherwise reasonable advice.
Suicide risk must be understood within the context in which it is occurring and generic suicide safety training was not written with coercive control in mind.
Whilst generic training is valuable, we have worked with professionals who felt that Dual Risk was more helpful as it is very context specific and is designed and delivered specifically with such challenges in mind – all the way through to specific personalised safety planning skills, to complement the safety plans other professionals may also produce.
What We Do
Training
Role-appropriate learning that builds recognition, confidence and practical response skills.
Organisational Support
Help to examine gaps between roles, services, policies and referral pathways.
Evidence Into Action
Research, lived experience and practice translated into usable tools and better decisions.
The Dual Risk Framework
Not everybody needs to become a suicide-intervention specialist. People need the right level of knowledge, confidence and skill for their role, responsibility and relationship with the person.
RECOGNISE
45 minutes
For whole workforces and community-facing roles.
Recognise the connection, notice possible signs and know how to refer appropriately.
RESPOND
90 minutes
For people whose roles may bring them into direct conversations.
Explore concerns with greater confidence and signpost more safely.
REACH IN
3.5 hours
For specialist, clinical and safeguarding roles.
Develop deeper practical skills for dual-risk conversations and safer planning.
Our Approach
Action Over Awareness
Policies, toolkits, guidance and online learning can increase knowledge – but knowledge is not the same as confidence and skill.
We focus on what happens on a wet Tuesday morning when a professional sits opposite someone in crisis. Can they recognise how abuse or coercive control may be shaping the situation, ask one more question and act with confidence?
In our work we found that even the most experienced IDVA’s who had had training found their understanding and confidence levels increased significantly following Dual Risk training.
Our Working Principle
LOOK WIDER. LOOK DEEPER. LOOK AGAIN. ASK JUST ONE MORE QUESTION.
Evidence And Resources
Closing the Gap: Suicide Prevention in Domestic Abuse Contexts
Our white paper explores the evidence, gaps and opportunities for improving responses where domestic abuse and suicide risk intersect.
Dual Risk: Evidence Of Impact
Read what practitioners have told us about the difference Dual Risk learning has made to their knowledge, confidence and practice.
The Dual Risk Framework
See the three levels of learning and identify the right starting point for your team.
About Dual Risk
Dual Risk CIC is a Community Interest Company established in 2026 to help reduce the risk of suicide in the context of domestic abuse.
Our work brings together evidence, education, lived experience, research and practice so that organisations can move from recognising the problem to knowing what to do about it.
Founded By Andrea Newton
Andrea created the Dual Risk Framework and wrote Closing the Gap: Suicide Prevention in Domestic Abuse Contexts. A qualified suicide-intervention tutor with more than three decades of experience as a trainer, she now specialises in the intersection between domestic abuse, coercive control and suicide prevention.
Andrea is studying for an MSc in the Psychology of Coercive Control at the University of Salford. Her work combines evidence, lived experience and the practical realities of the conversations professionals have when risk is unclear and the usual pathways do not fit.
Governance with practical breadth
Dual Risk is guided by an independent board of four directors who bring complementary experience to its development and accountability.
Andrea Newton
Founder and Director
Creator of the Dual Risk Framework; suicide-intervention tutor and specialist trainer working across domestic abuse, coercive control and suicide prevention.
Jack Murray-Pownall
Director
HR professional who brings value from that perspective; especially interested in championing inclusion. Keen to help support Dual Risk CICs vital work to prevent avoidable loss, grief and harm.
Lucy Patterson
Director of Innovation
Brings experience in innovation, design thinking, strategy and partnership development, with a focus on turning evidence into practical and sustainable organisational change.
Fiona Graham
Director
Extensive experience at a senior level in the housing sector and keen to support the community wide response to this critical issue.
Join The Dots
If you are responsible for workforce development, safeguarding, domestic abuse, suicide prevention or service design and want to strengthen how your organisation responds, we would be pleased to talk.
Contact us about training, organisational support, research, collaboration, speaking or funding partnerships.
© 2026 Dual Risk CIC®
Community Interest Company No. 17422402
Registered in England and Wales