How Karma Nirvana helps professionals

How our helpline can help safeguarding professionals support victims of HBA.

While our helpline is open to victims who may be facing Honour Based Abuse, our helpline is also available for safeguarding professionals, who may need expert advice or guidance. We also offer training to help support professionals long-term.

Support we offer to safeguarding professionals:

Expert guidance on Honour Based Abuse through our Helpline
Resources and guides for professionals
Training on Honour Based Abuse

Our Helpline

How Our Helpline Can Support You

Karma Nirvana’s free confidental helpline is an independent organisation which helps professionals understand and address Honour Based Abuse (HBA) nationwide. We can provide crucial support and resources to both professionals and victims. However, it’s important that individuals seeking our help do so by their own choice, therefore, we cannot contact victims without their explicit consent.

Below are some ways our helpline can assist professionals:

Identifying Honour Based Abuse: Offering guidance on recognising the signs of HBA in cases.
Evaluating Risk Factors: Helping professionals assess and understand the risks associated with HBA.
Supporting Historic Cases: Providing insights into previous HBA incidents and relevant information.
Handling Cases with Confidence: Empowering professionals to approach and manage HBA cases effectively.
Safety Planning: Assisting in creating both short and long-term safety plans for victims.
Guidance on Forced Marriage: Offering advice on relevant laws and best practices for handling forced marriage cases.
Understanding Victim Needs: Clarifying the types of support victims may require and how to offer effective assistance.
Locating Refuges: Helping professionals find safe shelters for victims. We have access to the Routes to Support database, which gives us up-to-date information on available refuge spaces across the UK. We can provide you with contact details, but we don’t liase with the refuge.
Building Confidence in Addressing Abuse: Equipping professionals with the knowledge and confidence needed to address HBA.
Signposting victims: Professionals can give victims our contact details and invite them to contact us. This process is called signposting, and we also have a page dedicated to explaining this process to victims. If you’d like to recieve physical Karma Nirvana materials to give to victims, please contact us.
Signposting to important resources: Directing you to important information that you may need to understand how to support victims facing Honour Based Abuse.

Our helpline is here to support professionals in taking the right steps to safeguard those at risk of Honour Based Abuse and to help them feel assured in their response.

What we can’t help with

We are not able to help with all requests. Here are some examples of what we won’t be able to help you with:

Forced referals: We are a third party organisation and it’s important that individuals seeking our help do so by their own choice. Therefore, we cannot contact victims without their explicit consent. While you can signpost victims to us, we don’t have a referal process, and we will not contact victims without their consent.
Interpreting services: While we offer support in multiple languages, we are not an interpreting service, and will not be able to support with interpreting requests.
Immigration and asylum: We do not support with immigration or asylum requests.
Legal application: While we are able to support with details about the law surrounding Honour Based Abuse, and how professionals should be responding, we are not legal practicioners.