“While home is undoubtedly the safest place to avoid the coronavirus, it is not the safest place for a woman and child experiencing family and domestic violence,” one frontline worker said.
of men using the new coronavirus to threaten and coerce women by lying about visitors, or themselves, having COVID-19.
Monash University’s Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre acting director Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon said the pandemic could “exacerbate” abusive situations and help spawn new ones. Services to support men using violent and controlling behaviour needed to be available at this time, she said. So how, and where, are people — both those at risk of violence, and perpetrators — supposed to find support right now?
“We have stopped face-to-face support and replaced that with phone or video support,” she said. “We have four refuges and three of them are group living, so we can’t have as many families as we normally would so they can achieve social distancing, and we have two properties set aside so that if someone contracts COVID-19 there’s somewhere to go and self-isolate.”
“However, it’s important to know that 1800RESPECT counsellors are experienced in how to sensitively handle contacts from those impacted by domestic violence, who are in the same house as the person using violence,” she said.
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