Point of Rescue

Point of Rescue… remembrance… mourning: recovering from intimate partner abuse is an intensely personal work continuing the journey of Point Last Seen… a road to recovery after childhood sexual abuse and domestic violence. This second book chronicles Ricky’s life from the time she kidnapped her own son and took flight to a new life away from abuse and torture. Rarely do we hear the stories of women who have stepped back from the abyss and are safe after escaping an abusive husband. Rarely do we realise the tortuous road they are faced with: long-term health outcomes, mental illness and post traumatic stress disorder. Leaving the abusive situation is just the beginning for Ricky as she assumes a new identity for fear of being found and killed, or her son abducted back to New Zealand. Within weeks of arriving in Australia Ricky receives the crushing news that her son Jonty had suffered brain damage as a result of his birth history and being shaken at six months of age; this condemned him to on-going health problems including intellectual disability, epilepsy, autism and reactive schizophrenia. Ricky has her own battle life with mental illness as she struggles to build her new life, process the aftermath of trauma, and hold down a fulltime job. Ricky finds a therapist who sets her thinking about a road to recovery, and takes up the challenge. This therapeutic journey covers years of complicated counselling. Using her own experience with Intimate Partner Abuse Ricky empowers herself by presenting workshops to health professionals. 100 workshops later and she is still going! A staunch advocate for the RSPCA Pets in Crisis Program, Ricky now talks with school students about healthy relationships and dating abuse and link between pet abuse and domestic violence.