Content Warning: The following story mentions intimate partner/ domestic violence (including a brief graphic description of violence), and sexual violence.
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COVID-19 complicates many aspects of everyday life, but it also puts strain on pre-existing social and economic crises.
Intimate partner violence (IPV), or gender-based violence (GBV), is increasing in both severity and frequency across Canada.
The Local Love in a Global Crisis Speaker Series addresses concerns about IPV in their online event, “Challenging Intimate Partner and Domestic Violence during Covid-19”, which took place October 21 over Zoom.
Sara Vikse-Brenton is one of the two featured speakers. She is a counsellor with Family Enrichment and Counselling Service (FECS), and facilitates the Changing Tides program for women who experienced or are experiencing difficult relationships.
The second speaker, Jen Richard, is the director of Sexual Violence New Brunswick (SVNB).
Richard and Vikse-Brenton paint a picture of how counsellors and outreach workers are functioning under new restrictions, and discuss their concerns for those experiencing IPV during the pandemic.
“PANDEMIC MEETS PANDEMIC”
Richard and Vikse-Brenton say that the pandemic has impacted their ability to provide services to those experiencing intimate partner violence, and that waitlists are at an all-time length.
Richard says that resources in the gender-based violence sector were already under stress.
“It’s been characterized as a pandemic upon a pandemic. Even before COVID happened a lot of people in this sector were overstretched. We had to close down our intake for a period or time and restrict it because it was already too long… it’s now starting to come back up. We couldn’t provide accompaniment to the hospital anymore, so if we had survivors of sexual violence who were going to the hospital we couldn’t provide that service anymore.”
All appointments must abide by COVID-19 guidelines, which does not allow for in-person sessions.
Vikse-Brenton worries that phones and laptops are not always a safe option for those experiencing intimate partner violence.
She says that “one of the things that was impacted [by COVID-19] was privacy. Clients that would normally be coming into our offices to have their sessions with their counsellors were no longer able to do that… They had to rely on telephone or video sessions. If someone was living in a domestic violence situation they wouldn’t necessarily have a safe place to have those appointments… Access to services was also difficult to do. We had an uptake in the number of people looking for services… we had to implement a waitlist.. I’ve been with Family Enrichment for eight years, and I’ve never had to do that. That was really difficult, the demand was a lot greater.”
Vikse-Brenton says the pandemic complicates how people can access services, but that Family Enrichment is learning about how to make their services more accessible.
“One of the things that the pandemic has shown us is that there is a lot more flexibility in the delivery of services than we ever imagined before… There are some clients for whom virtual appointments work better. Clients who might be hard of hearing who hear better in a telephone call because they’re using headphones. People for whom transportation is an issue… people for whom childcare might be an issue.”
According to a survey conducted by the Ending Violence Association of Canada, 90% of those working in the gender-based violence sector reported negative impacts [due to COVID-19] changes on their ability to do their work.
The workers were surveyed between May 18 to July 20, 2020.
2020 STATISTICS ARE “DISHEARTENING”
Intimate partner violence is increasing in both frequency and severity.
The Ending Violence Association of Canada found that 46% of GBV workers across the country noticed changes in “the prevalence and severity of violence.”
82% of those who noticed the changes describe an increase in prevalence and severity of violence.
An anonymous participant says they noticed “many more cases of strangulation and serious physical assaults leading to a higher risk of lethality.”
34% of workers noticed changes in the mental health and well-being of those experiencing gender-based violence.
As for those perpetuating abuse, 20% of GBV workers noticed changes in the tactics used to commit violence and increase control
The survey says that “abusers were taking advantage of the conditions created by the pandemic to escalate control and isolation and to commit violence, including using isolation at home as a tool for engaging in violence, misusing information about the pandemic to exercise control, monitoring and controlling access to technology to increase and isolation and limit help-seeking.”
Legal services for survivors are also twice as long as usual if not longer, says Richard.
She says that the legal system is “slow already,” and that some have withdrawn from it due to indefinite delays.
“For any case, you’d be looking at, if you’re lucky to go from a report to a conviction, maybe two and a half years maybe longer… Now we’re looking at problems with actual spaces, a lot of proceedings have moved. All of those protocols have delayed a lot of those things, even how to investigate a file has changed now… It can become three years or four years.”
Richard estimates these delays may affect gender-based violence cases for the next five years.
BOUNDARIES BLUR FOR COUNSELORS, WORKERS
Working from home is complex for those who work with people who are experiencing intimate partner violence or gender-based violence.
Richard stresses the importance of safe spaces and boundaries when working with vulnerable people, for both the workers and the people accessing services.
“Having a safe space and boundaries is super important when you work in this field. When you lose that and you work from home all the time and you’re helping people all the time, you can lose that boundary. If this is a long-term thing that we’re going to be doing, there’s great accessibility implications, but we also need to think of the safety of the workers.”
An anonymous response to the Ending Violence Association of Canada survey says that working from home has negatively impacted their well-being.
Working for survivors of sexual abuse, you hear a lot of horrible stories every day. Since COVID hit, I had to invite those stories into my home. My entire living space has been slimed with stories of sexual violence, making it hard to “leave work at work”. I think about work more often now. I feel like I can’t escape it.
Ending Violence Association of Canada, anonymous participant
On top of personal boundary violations, workers are concerned with how the gender-based violence sector will cope with the increase of violence.
27% are concerned the predicted increase in need for services will reach beyond the sector’s capacity, and 23% are concerned their organizations will not have the financial resources necessary to sustain their work.
Ending Violence Association of Canada
Advocates for gender-based violence say that things cannot simply ‘return to normal’ during and after pandemic recovery.
Instead, they are calling for “a fundamental reimagination of how GBV work is supported and connected to other large systems in ways that ensure an intersectional, systemic approach.”
I think framing it as a ‘return to normal’ is incredibly problematic, because our normal before the pandemic was not serving women who experience violence well. I think we ought to look at this pandemic as a learning lesson in the bigger picture of gender-based violence. To understand that we simply are not doing enough in reacting to the issue of violence against women, and more work needs to be done.
Ending Violence Association of Canada, anonymous participant
ALTERNATIVES TO POLICE INTERVENTION
Richard says that only 5% of those who experience sexual violence or intimate partner violence make a report with the police.
“There are some alternatives, it depends on what the survivor’s goals are. For some seeking justice is important. For other people there are different things available whether it’s counselling or other types or activism.”
Viske-Brenton recommends calling the CHIMO helpline, which is available 24/7 at 1-800-667-5005.
She is optimistic about the new 211 line in New Brunswick, which can direct people to services available in their area.
Crossroads for Women outreach workers also come to Sackville periodically.
For Mount Allison Students, the Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Education Service (SHARE) is available at 506-540-7427 or share@mta.ca.
A list of crisis lines and services in New Brunswick is available here.
