A helpline funded by the public#
The ManKind Initiative, usually just called ManKind, supports men who are experiencing domestic abuse from a current or former wife, husband or partner, including a same-sex partner. Its home page says its helpline relies on the public for funding and receives no taxpayer money or grants. It hears from men of every age, from their twenties to their eighties, and from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It also trains organisations, runs the ACORN recovery programme for male survivors, and publishes a directory of local services that support men, which it calls the Oak Book.
What the helpline does#
The helpline is confidential and open on weekday daytimes, excluding bank holidays, and the freephone number does not appear on bills. Trained staff offer a listening ear and information: how to report incidents, planning an escape, and pointers to local support, emergency housing and solicitors. Friends, family members, colleagues and employers can call too.
Two limits are worth knowing before you get in touch. ManKind does not answer by email, because a reply could be intercepted. And it does not give legal advice, hold case files or provide letters of support for court, immigration or housing purposes; for those it suggests asking the organisation handling your case for a referral to a local domestic abuse service.
The documents it tells you to keep safe#
ManKind's What you can do page asks men to keep important documents for themselves and their children somewhere safe, such as at work or with trusted friends or family: birth certificates, marriage certificate, passport, driving licence and insurance documents. It also suggests keeping a diary of incidents away from home, reporting injuries to a GP, and turning off "track my phone" when you leave.
On housing, it explains that councils have a duty to help victims of domestic abuse of either sex with emergency housing, and that 22 members of the Women's Aid federation provide refuge places for men, who can use a free rail and coach travel scheme to reach them.
A man's name after abuse#
Those documents are also the evidence for any change of name. A man who took his spouse's surname at marriage can usually return to his birth surname with the same papers a woman would use: GOV.UK names the marriage certificate together with the decree absolute or final order, and warns that some record-holders still ask for a deed poll. You do not have to wait for a divorce: your own name is yours to change at any time, and a deed poll needs nobody's agreement. GOV.UK publishes the wording free for anyone aged 16 or over.
Your children's names are a different matter. A child's surname can change only when every person with parental responsibility consents, or when a court allows it, so a father leaving an abusive partner cannot rename the children on his own.
More for men changing their name#
- Can a husband take his wife's surname?: what the certificate does and does not change.
- Going back to your maiden name after divorce: the same rules apply to men.
- Respect and the Men's Advice Line: the other national helpline for male victims.
- Charities that help after domestic abuse.
This page describes what the ManKind Initiative publishes on its website, read on 26 October 2026. ManKind has not reviewed it, and listing it here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
