Sarah Benson: We can't squander this opportunity to tackle domestic abuse

Covid-19 brought new risks for many people who did not feel safe in their own homes. As we enter the next phase, we cannot lose sight of them again, writes Sarah Benson

The home is not a safe haven for victims of domestic violence.

Within a few short months, Covid-19 has generated a seismic ripple of fear and anxiety, not seen for a hundred years, as the whole human race faces an unfamiliar attacker. 

We are rallying together to minimise risk and harm to the most vulnerable in our societies. But what about those for whom Covid-19 is not the primary risk they face; for whom the home they have been asked to retreat to is not a safe one? 

As society tries to adjust to a ‘new normal’, somehow living with Covid-19, we must not forget those subjected to domestic and dating abuse. Fear, coercion, and violence are used daily as weapons against thousands of women in intimate relationships to hurt and control them. In the midst of this crisis, there is this pre-existing pandemic of criminal abuse which has the potential to destroy lives just as insidiously as a virus.

Today, Women’s Aid releases our Annual Impact Report 2019 and a supplementary report: When Home is Not Safe, Domestic Abuse During the Covid-19 Emergency. Both reports provide insights into the lived experiences of Irish women and children suffering from domestic violence. In 2019, we heard harrowing accounts of the physical, emotional, sexual, and financial abuse to which women and children were subjected. As stay-at-home measures were introduced in mid-March of this year, we saw a further and unprecedented increase in calls to the Women’s Aid 24hr National Freephone Helpline.

In 2019, there were 20,763 contacts made with our direct services in which 19,258 disclosures of domestic violence against women were made and 4,791 disclosures of abuse against children. Women disclosed being beaten, strangled, burned, raped. Their lives and those of their children were threatened. 

They told us about being denied access to the family income to feed and clothe themselves and their children and of being stalked and humiliated online.

As a result of the abuse, different women told us how they were suffering from exhaustion, feeling like they had lost their own identity, and suffering suicide ideation. Women also spoke about painful isolation from family and friends as a result of their abuser’s coercive control. They described nightmares and the constant fear they felt within their homes, afraid to speak in case they put themselves or their children at risk.

When the pandemic hit, we worriedly watched as the rates of domestic violence soared across the globe. In Ireland, we saw a 43% increase in calls between the end of March and the end of June to the 24hr National Freephone Helpline. Trapped with abusers and denied outlets that may have brought them support and solace, women were coming up with ingenious ways to get in touch with us. Women called from their car, from the garden shed, from the bathroom with the shower running. 

We also saw a 71% increase in visits to the Women’s Aid website for this period. It is also where our Instant Messaging Support Service can be accessed, and we were able to extend the hours of this new service over seven days, enabling those who could not speak out to reach out discreetly and in silence for support.

Nonetheless, we also knew that for many women the options to act, reach out, and seek protection were horribly constrained. Accessing courts, for example, became an impossible challenge for some and numbers of applications for protective orders dropped. 

Women described to us the ways they were trying to ‘ride it out’ until restrictions eased and they could once again find ‘legitimate’ pretexts to leave the house, access childcare while they sought judicial assistance, or simply be permitted to get to a loved one’s home for shelter and respite.

In the midst of this challenge, where the cracks of Ireland's response to domestic abuse were starkly revealed, there was also hope and positivity. Our own staff and volunteer team adapted quickly and flexibly and came together to rally to women’s aid, for which I am incredibly thankful. 

This has also been a period of partnership and innovation, particularly with and by our colleagues in Safe Ireland, our fellow specialist domestic and sexual violence services, and others who have come together to amplify the voices of victims and survivors, to propose solutions to ease their situation and to engage with statutory services, agencies and government to progress more effective responses.

We have been part of Government campaigns delivered in partnership with specialist services including the Men’s Development Network who provide Freephone support to male victims. We’ve seen proactive Garda operations to prioritise the domestic abuse response. There have been initiatives in social protection and with private businesses to make access to resources, and protection, more accessible. There has been an outpouring of community concern, generosity, and creativity to assist services and to raise public awareness of these heinous, and preventable, crimes.

A whole-of-community, whole-of-government response is required in order to prevent domestic abuse, to protect women and children and to hold perpetrators to account. Let’s not squander this opportunity. It may have taken a crisis but it has shown us that, where there is a concerted will, there is a way for us all to do better.

Sarah Benson is CEO of Women’s Aid.