Support groups a vital aid to victims

Caroline O’Doherty asks if any progress has been made in tackling domestic abuse

WHEN Women’s Aid was founded 39 years ago, the women’s liberation movement was only a few years old, the Commission on the Status of Women had not long delivered its first report and the marriage bar on working women had just been lifted.

Many steps towards equality have taken place since and among the issues that have benefited from greater recognition and understanding is domestic violence.

And yet the problem still exists and still destroys lives as effectively as it ever did four decades ago. So has any progress really been made?

Yes and no, says Margaret Martin, director of Women’s Aid, which runs the national freephone 1800 341 900 helpline. “The acid test is what is it like for women now. Is it better? And that’s a hard question to answer because we should judge it on the experiences of the individual woman.

“Certainly there are improvements. 40 years ago there were no refuges. Women had to get the boat and go to England or walk the streets. But there are still women who sleep in their cars because they are frightened. When you have women who are really high risk and you cannot get them into a refuge tonight, it’s a major worry.

“There are good services around the country [see www.safeireland.ie for a list and contact details] but there are gaps.”

Stretched services are only part of the problem. Institutional mindsets have sometimes been slow to respond.

While legislation changed dramatically in 40 years — barring and protection orders were introduced in 1976 and have been strengthened several times since — the courts have not.

“We’ve recently had two bank holidays. If a woman got assaulted on a Friday night and the court is not open until the next Tuesday, or she is in A&E on a Friday night and there is no space in the refuge, then we’re not really going to be effective.

“The system is only really going to be effective if it can protect her at the time that she needs. One of the things we would push for is that access to emergency protection would be 24 hours.”

She can’t stress strongly enough the importance of making the services and protections fit the woman’s needs rather than the other way around. The personnel who manage the Women’s Aid helpline get a unique insight into how difficult it is for abused women even to signal that they need help.

“We have women ringing who are in hiding and need protection immediately. And other times a woman will just hang up — she’ll say I hear his car or I hear his key in the door. You don’t always get to finish a call.

“It’s so important that the next time she calls or the next service she contacts, that help is available to her.”

Sometimes it’s a case of one step up and at least one step back. Last month at a meeting of EU justice ministers chaired by Alan Shatter, members agreed mutual recognition of domestic violence orders.

A woman who has a barring order in one country, will now carry that protection wherever she goes in the EU, and police in all jurisdictions have powers to enforce it.

But the strict implementation of the habitual residence condition in relation to welfare payments means a woman moving from one country to another to escape domestic violence cannot access basic state supports.

Variations in how state services are delivered can also complicate matters.

“We find local authorities differing in policies when it comes to finding social housing for a woman who needs to move to another county,” says Martin. “With resources getting very tight some local authorities are unwilling to support women from outside their catchment area.”

Variations in practise are also notable among the gardaí who have difficult decisions to make when responding to domestic violence incidents, particularly if there is no court order in place.

“It goes from the absolutely excellent to actually very poor. You can have that variation between districts, between stations and within stations.”

It’s a complex area, Martin concedes. She believes there should be strong sanctions for men who repeatedly breach domestic violence orders but how strong is the question.

“If you have, say, a ‘three breaches and it’s prison’ rule, then the third time he arrives at the house, and every time subsequently, she might not report it and the next thing he could be living back at the house and the whole thing starts again.

“We need strategies to make domestic violence socially unacceptable and to make it easier for victims. At the moment, all the onus is on the victims to change their situation.”

Ellen O’Malley Dunlop, chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, is all for society as a whole playing a bigger part in ending domestic violence but she says there are aspects of our culture that need to change.

“Attitudes change slowly. It was only in 1986 that the law changed to give married women a right to their own place of residence. Up to then it didn’t matter if her husband was living in South America and she was in Ireland — the law said her home was with him.

“And it was only in 1990 that marital rape was recognised in law — and there has only been one successful case since. That will tell you how difficult this area still is.”

The calls to the Rape Crisis helpline reflect that. Eight out of 10 calls are from women who have been raped or sexually assaulted by someone they know.

“Why is that so embedded in our culture? I think it’s a question we should be asking ourselves. When you look at the resistance to bringing more women into politics, you wonder, where does that come from and what effect does it have?

“Attitudes to women are still very archaic in ways.”

What is needed is someone in politics to champion the cause, says Sharon O’Halloran, chief executive of Safe Ireland, the umbrella body that represents 40 local and regional domestic violence centres and services, including 20 refuges.

“One of the first things Barack Obama did was appoint a specialist to advise him — White House adviser Lynn Rosenthal was appointed in 2009 after a career in frontline services and advocacy. We need a minister with special responsibility for this area, someone who would push for things to happen and ask why they’re not.”

It’s a frustrating time for Safe Ireland. A new, purpose-built refuge in Co Kildare — built on state land and with state money — is lying idle because of a lack of funds to run it.

“There is certainly a problem in terms of refuge provision in this country. We meet one third of the requirement set down by the Council of Europe.

“But we’re not saying you have to build refuges everywhere. There is a real problem around transitional and social housing. There are very limited follow-on options for women leaving domestic violence so they are getting stuck in refuges.”

Funding is a big issue even for day to day services, never mind capital investment. “You hear things like ‘you should amalgamate the smaller services’ but that would be a disaster for us when we’re all about trying to bring help as close to as many women as possible.

“Another line is ‘get volunteers’ as if the work we do could be done by anyone. It’s not about making teas and coffees — it’s about advising and supporting women at what can be the most dangerous time of their life.”

Frustrations aside, those working in the support services say nothing is more heartening than when they know they’ve helped.

“Women will come up to me and say I would not be here if it wasn’t for Women’s Aid,” says Margaret Martin.

“That’s why the people who work here and volunteer are so dedicated — they know it makes a difference. Sometimes we’ll get a card and it says, I’m getting married tomorrow and it’s great and the kids are doing well. That says it all.”