Matt Levy tells us: We’re better than that
"Women with a disability are almost twice as likely to experience domestic violence than women without a disability"
Matt Levy remembers his dad taking him on trips every Sunday, for six or seven months, to rehearse the long route to and from his first school classes.
The route involved a lot of walking and street navigation – especially difficult for a vision-impaired child such as himself.
Levy is well aware that not everyone in his situation had that level of support from family to achieve greater independence.
It’s an awareness that drove the Paralympic gold medallist’s recent involvement in “We’re Better Than That” – a campaign urging locals to help stop domestic violence and neglect.
In a video recorded at scenic Mahon Pool in Sydney’s east, he laid out some sobering facts.
“Women with a disability are almost twice as likely to experience domestic violence than women without a disability,” Levy said.
Levy also described some of the forms of abuse to which people with a disability are especially vulnerable, including financial, emotional and social abuse.
He told The AJN he has heard “plenty of stories” about people within the disabled community being “neglected, and not included”, and the “loss of opportunities” that can result from that.
The new instalment of the campaign – funded by the Central and Eastern Primary Health Networks, in partnership with the Hope Believe Shine Foundation, and Waverley, Woollahra and Bayside Councils – sees OAM recipient Levy joining celebrities such as My Kitchen Rules’ Colin Fassnidge, and Bondi Rescue lifeguard Bruce “Hoppo” Hopkins.
In the video, Levy urges each viewer to be an active bystander.
When asked about the term, Levy explained that, to him, helping is not about “solving the problem” or being an “expert”.
It can be a simple matter of paying attention, and sometimes just “asking if you’re OK” and “starting that conversation … to be that friend, and communicator”.
“By lending my voice [to the campaign], hopefully it gives it a wider reach in the community,” Levy said.
View the video at youtu.be/t1-F9mwUEyY
For more information, go to facebook.com/WereBetterThanThatAUS
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