LOCKDOWN IS AN ‘ONGOING PRISON’ FOR ABUSE VICTIMS
THE “new normal” of combined work-home could mean ongoing prisons for women and children living with abusers says the Domestic Violence Advocacy Service (DVAS).
DVAS said that it was preparing for what it anticipates could be a further surge in calls and needs by women and children who have been contained with their abusers in Sligo and Leitrim for the past ten weeks and who may now finally find the space and freedom to reach out for help as the country begins to open up.
Carmel McNamee manager at Domestic Violence Advocacy Service (DVAS) said it was reconfiguring to ensure that it can provide the best levels of safe, professional support for women and children.
DVAS is a member of Safe Ireland, the national hub for 38 domestic violence services throughout the country. Together, the network is putting in place a united recovery plan to respond to what will be a “new normal” she said.
Over the lockdown period DVAS has been offer support, information and advocacy to women in all manner of situations. DVAS has been supporting women in accessing emergency accommodation and seeking safety through court orders.
DVAS are very impressed with An Garda Siochana’s Operation Faoiseamh, in which Gardai in Sligo and Leitrim are focusing on domestic violence and sending out a powerful message that perpetrators cannot get away with abusive controlling behaviour.
” We know that women with children may have been tolerating abuse and coercive control through the weeks of strict containment for the sake of the children. With more space and freedom, she said, these women can hopefully get an opportunity to reach out for the safety and protection they need.
“Our services have been open and have been operating throughout this crisis,” Carmel said. “As we begin to open up here in Sligo and Leitrim we are available, now more than ever. We believe that many women have been living with intolerable abuse over the past two months. It is important that they know that we are here and that we can support them to be safe in their own homes, or help re-home them if this is what is needed.”
Carmel said that DVAS along with services throughout the country had become more united in their resolve that the sector “cannot go back” to the way things were operating.
She said that Covid-19 had exposed the fragility of the sector and the deep fault lines that have existed for decades in the state’s response to domestic violence. DVAS has been advocating for women fleeing from domestic violence during Covid-19 to be able to receive rent supplement, for example, which has so far been denied by Government. She also said that Covid 19 could mean that the “home-work divide’ will be reconfigured in the long-term, raising serious issues for the risk and invisibility of domestic violence.
“What we now regard as ‘ the private’ may be radically changed with technology likely to reconfigure our lives utterly,” Carmel said. “We have to seriously consider if the future will make an absolute prison of these combined spaces for many women and children? We have to be prepared to respond to this new normal. The fractured and piece-meal State response to domestic violence that we had for decades simply won’t do this.”
Safe Ireland (www.safeireland.ie) has established an Emergency Covid-19 Fund to support the emergency needs of women and children throughout the crisis. This funding is distributed directly through frontline services like DVAS. So far, the fund has enabled DVAS to provide practical but essential items like food, heating oil, utility bills, car insurance, transport costs and appliances needed for new accommodation. The fund remains open for donations and will continue to be used, now more than ever, as the country opens up, Carmel said.
Support, information and advocacy is available for women experiencing domestic violence and in coercive controlling relationships. Ring 071-9141515 from Monday-Friday 10am-5pm, email support@dvas.ie or visit www.domesticviolence.ie