Calls to domestic violence service almost double in twelve months

A record number of people sought help from the Offaly Domestic Violence Support Services (ODVSS) in 2020 as lockdown created the “perfect storm for the perpetrators of domestic abuse”.

ODVSS's number of client contacts almost doubled from 879 in 2019 to 1,720 last year, while the number of new clients that the sought help from ODVSS rose from 117 in 2019 to 185 in 2020, an increase of almost 60%. Overall, the number of individual clients rose by 30% from 185 in 2019 to 240 last year, an increase of 30%. The number of calls received on ODVSS's helpline increased by 45% rom 1,428 in 2019 to 2080 calls.

ODVSS also records the number of Domestic Violence Orders granted by the local courts, and these jumped by over 60% from 98 orders in 2019 to 160 last year.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent this week, the manager of ODVSS Anne Clarke, said that demand for help from female and male victims of domestic abuse has been “relentless” since the start of the pandemic last March.

In addition to their clients in Offaly, through social media, the group received requests for help from people across the country and from all over the world, including the USA, UK and Europe.

To meet the increase in demand, the Tullamore-based support group temporarily moved to a seven-day week. While the office has now returned to a five-day week they have increased their opening hours.

The group also added an extra text line for women and me who may not have been able to have talk on their phones. Other new free supports that have been added over the past year include counselling and life coaching services. “We were very conscious that the woman or man was going to be in lockdown with the perpetrator. Obviously, we had to suspend one-to-one because of Covid and we were really concerned about keeping the same level of service. We adapted very quickly and moved a lot of our services and programmes online. We purchased tablet devices following a grant from Safe Ireland. We were able to loan these to people to participate in our programmes,” Anne Clarke said.

Among the record numbers of men and women seeking help last year, Ms Clarke says that a significant portion were the victims of coercive or financial abuse. The unique pressures brought about by repeated lockdowns may have led to some people reaching out for support quicker than they usually would, she believes.

“A 2015 study found that one in four Irish women have been victims of domestic abuse and found that 79% never come forward. However, I think what happened was some of them started to come forward because of the lockdown. They were able to manage the abuse on a day-to-day basis [pre pandemic] because they had respites such as seeing their friends, going to the shops or other activities, even bringing children to school. All of these were taken away. Now, the pressure they were under was magnified and someone who might have taken two or three years to get help were coming forward after two or three months.

“That’s why I think our figures increased so dramatically it’s because some of that 79% just couldn’t keep managing it. It was the perfect storm for the perpetrator because he or she wants to keep their partner isolated. They want to keep them away from their support networks. They don’t want them mixing. Covid handed that on a plate for the perpetrator. Women were under that magnifying glass and saying I can’t do this anymore,” she said.

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