With a rise in family violence due to the coronavirus crisis set to strain an already overstretched social support system, some abusers are reportedly using COVID-19 as a psychological weapon, The Good Oil reports.
Google is reporting the highest magnitude of searches for domestic violence help that they have seen in the past five years, with an increase of 75 per cent. Some services are already seeing an increase in demand as vulnerable women and children in self-isolation are facing the prospect of being forced to stay inside with an abusive partner.
With social isolation restrictions in place across Australia, federal and state governments have announced funding packages to support people experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence due to the fallout from the pandemic.
COVID-19 isolation is forcing some women and children to stay inside with abuse partners. PHOTO: Shutterstock.
The Good Samaritan Inn in Melbourne is a crisis accommodation service for women and children who have experienced family violence. The Inn’s Executive Director, Felicity Rorke, welcomed funding packages from the Commonwealth and Victorian governments.
Established in 1996, the Inn provides supported accommodation for more than 300 women and children escaping family violence and homelessness each year. The service receives funding from the Victorian Government and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Guests are provided with a supportive, safe and clean place to stay, where they can attend to their immediate needs, prior to moving on to longer-term or transitional accommodation including refuges, which offer up to 12 weeks supported accommodation, or to return home with safety measures in place.
Felicity said the service was always in high demand with women and families staying an average of 14 days before being able to move to safe and appropriate medium to longer term accommodation. “During the current crisis many women’s refuges which offer communal living, are reducing their capacity to ensure that they are able to enforce the physical distancing expectations,” she said.
‘Crisis refuges’ such as the Good Samaritan Inn, provide the often-needed step between the first contact a person has with the service system. This is often a phone call to the telephone crisis service or a visit by the police and a follow-up phone call by a local Family Violence Outreach Service, or The Orange Door in some Victorian areas.
“Although we know that unemployment, financial hardship, excessive use of alcohol or drugs, increased anxiety and stress, and lack of access to family and friends are not causes of family and domestic violence, they are all likely factors that could exacerbate an already tense environment where controlling and abusive behaviours are present,” Felicity said.
“The 24/7 crisis telephone service in Victoria, safe steps, reports that there has been a reduction in the number of women contacting them requesting support for high-risk situations. They are very concerned that this is due to women having less access to privacy and to a safe phone or internet connection because their partner is home due to the coronavirus. The perpetrator may have lost their job, or their hours are reduced and or they are now working from home.
“During school holidays women are less likely to seek contact due to children being at home and having less time and opportunity to visit or talk to a domestic violence or family support practitioner. With the extension to school closures, these opportunities for women to contact services are again reduced.
“With only very minimal face-to-face support available and significantly reduced contact with family and friends, healthcare and medical services it is likely that women are feeling more isolated and are more at risk than ever before.”
This is an abridged version of an article published in the April edition of The Good Oil, the e-newsletter of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan. Read the full article here.