Valentine jolt gets blame for violence

Police callouts for domestic violence doubled after Canterbury’s Valentines Day earthquake – raising concerns about a trend of athome violence following big aftershocks.

The stress created by the 5.7-magnitude shake and an increase in mental health problems since the deadly 2011 earthquake are blamed for a sharp rise in partner abuse.

Superintendent Lane Todd, of the Christchurch police, said in previous years they received 20 to 26 calls over a three to four-day period around February 14 – that doubled to 53 callouts after last month’s earthquake.

Todd said the violence included assaults and nasty verbal altercations between partners that required police intervention. It had happened after previous aftershocks, but not ‘‘to this degree’’.

‘‘The information we have is it’s stress-related after the earthquakes,’’ Todd said. ‘‘It builds that picture that mental health issues in our community are still there. When we had that large earthquake, it was just a trigger to bring it all back.’’

Most incidents involved a fight between partners, not children.

Police then referred people to social agencies or counselling, ‘‘where applicable’’.

‘‘It’s just people being aware of stresses and just looking out for each other.

‘‘People in relationships need to be consistently looking at getting support and seeking help early, rather than waiting to get into a confrontation situation.’’

Attempted suicides in the community was ‘‘still tracking quite high’’, Todd said.

Canterbury police responded to more than 2800 attempted suicides last year, up significantly on previous years and well above other regions.

Julie McCloy, spokeswoman for Aviva, which helps people escape family violence, said in the past there had been an increase in calls after big aftershocks. After the February 2011 earthquake, calls increased by 50 per cent and ‘‘stayed that way for months’’.

Police recorded similar spikes after the September 2010 and February 2011 earthquakes.

McCloy said Aviva’s last financial year was its busiest, with calls to its helpline increasing from an annual 3500 to 4000.

February and March were its busiest times of the year.

‘‘The team is quite stretched to the limit at the moment,’’ she said. ‘‘Mental health and violence go hand in hand.’’

City Missioner Michael Gorman said the earthquake ‘‘brought anxiety to the surface again and many people spoke of being anxious and fearful’’.

‘‘The level of stress is seen in how people interact with each other and they certainly seem to have less mental reserves.’’

Gorman said it was not always violence between spouses. The mission had just housed a woman whose son had abused her financially, and was left with his bills when he left town.

‘‘When people are stressed, they often do not behave as well as they would if they were in a better state of mind. It would not be surprising if we were more careless with our relationships at the very time that we should be really helping each other,’’ Gorman said.

Last month, the Government promised a multimillion-dollar package to help the Canterbury District Health Board deal with a raft of mental health problems created by the earthquakes. Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said the package, which is yet to be detailed, was partly prompted by the Valentines Day aftershock.

‘‘It builds that picture that mental health issues in our community are still there. When we had that large earthquake it was just a trigger to bring it all back.’’

Superintendent Lane Todd