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COVID-19: Pandemic has led to an increase in domestic violence in B.C.

A spike in calls to women's help lines shows an epidemic of domestic violence on top of a pandemic, say advocates.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a surge in domestic violence around the globe, and Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director of Vancouver’s Battered Women’s Support Services says B.C. is no exception.

MacDougall’s organization had been carefully following a rise of domestic violence in China when the pandemic was declared, and worked hard to get plans in place ahead of the coronavirus arriving taking hold here.

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Conversations with contacts in China had already revealed the toll that restrictions in movement, shelter-in-place orders, quarantines and social isolation had on women trapped in abusive domestic situations, said MacDougall.

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“We wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and minister of finance about additional funding for shelters, sexual assault centres and groups like ours. We ended up not getting any funding, which shows a big gap in recognition of the kind of work groups like ours do,” said MacDougall.

Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director of Vancouver’s Battered Women’s Support Services.
Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director of Vancouver’s Battered Women’s Support Services. Photo by Francis Georgian /PNG

The BWSS provides crisis support and services, counselling, legal advocacy and employment support and provides vital, long-term support for victims of gender-based violence.

Calls to the BWSS help line have jumped 400 per cent in the last two months, said MacDougall.

And across Canada there have been nine women killed through gender-based violence in the last 36 days.

Stats Canada reports that in 2018, there were over 99,000 victims of police-reported intimate partner violence (IPV) aged 15 to 89 in Canada. Most occurred in a dwelling occupied by both the victim and the accused. Women accounted for eight in 10 victims, and 18,965 children were victimized by a family member in 2018.

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Social distancing and social isolation creates the ideal environment for domestic abuse, said MacDougall. “It’s a pandemic overlying an epidemic of violence.”

Calls are often coming from concerned citizens and ear-witnesses: community members who are also isolated, and hearing the distress of their neighbours.

Community members have an important role in helping those experiencing domestic violence: it was a community member who helped Sara finally access the help she needed to free herself and her two children from the tyranny of an abusive partner. Sara is a pseudonym as Postmedia is protecting her identity for her own safety.

A mother of two teenagers, Sara had endured nearly two decades trapped in an abusive relationship that worsened over time. “I lived in fear on a constant basis, emotional and verbal abuse,” she told Postmedia.

Although her husband never physically hit her, the threat was always there.

“I was in denial, I didn’t think I was an abused woman. I thought I had to be hit,” said Sara.

In her marriage Sara suffered daily threatened violence, “accidental” injuries inflicted by her husband, emotional, verbal, financial abuse and “constant coercive control and gaslighting.”

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It was a friend that finally threw her the lifeline she needed. 

“She saw him screaming at my mom at one of my kids’ sports games, and said it was terrifying to watch,” said Sara. “She said, can I send you something?”

Her friend sent her the link to the Battered Women’s Support Services.

“I was barely functioning when I got there, and very quickly when I got there I started to feel believed, I started to understand what I was going through, I started to take action and find resources,” said Sara.

Battered Women’s Support Society helped her make decisions on how to care for herself and her children, how to access psychological and emotional support, therapy for her kids and how to negotiate the court system to get custody.

“When abuse is escalating, so do the feelings of entrapment, and that has deep emotional and psychological impacts,” said MacDougall.

Physical violence isn’t the only hallmark of an abusive relationship: name calling, criticizing, manipulation, financial manipulation and gaslighting are all part of what MacDougall calls the architecture of an abusive relationship.

The impacts can be devastating. Sara experienced a debilitating anxiety disorder, PTSD, memory loss, depression and physical symptoms from which she is now healing.

“Very often, leaving is more risky than staying,” said MacDougall. “An abusive partner wants to maintain power and control. If a woman leaves she’s taking back her power.”

MacDougall said friends, family, coworkers and community can all play a part in helping, but more government funding is needed.

“There is a gap in funding for organizations like ours,” said MacDougall.

dryan@postmedia.com

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