Trigger Warning: This post contains subjects and issues that may be upsetting to some.

Editor Note: I saw a news report some time ago and it has been on my mind. I thought it is an issue that needs to be addressed. This issue falls under Mental Health, which is sometimes shoved to the back burner.

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Over the past several weeks I have been hearing that helplines are seeing a spike in calls over abuse.

A former officer once told me that the worse times for calls concerning abuse was during the holidays.

According to a CTV News article “Calls to Canadian domestic violence helplines jump during pandemic”  that certain helplines are seeing a spike in incoming calls.

The executive director of Battered Women’s Support Services based in Vancouver said that “the urgency and severity intensified”.

Relating what the calls are saying is, the situation of being in lockdown has created a pressure cooker environment, one that has no release valve.

The United Nations has said that the abuse that is happening would be considered a shadow pandemic.

One form of abuse is that women who have tested positive with Covid-19 being kicked out.

The calls from women are heart wrenching. Wondering if they go to a shelter will their abuser take them back.

This is a familiar story that I have heard for most of my life. Women are afraid to leave their abusive partner. They have been told they cannot make it on their own.  Others stay in the abusive relationship because of the children. They are afraid to go through the court system fearing that they may lose their children. For any mother those fears are real.

Also, in the CTV News article, they state that in British Columbia at the time of this report, the Battered Women’s Crisis line received more than 1,800 calls. That is double the number from the same month last year.

Women abuse is something that goes on silently. It is due to fear of finances, accommodations, custody of children.

In every city there are halfway homes for battered women. The homes are never listed, they are in neighborhoods with no sign giving away their secret.

Other Reports:

A crisis mental-health hotline has seen an 891% spike in calls in year over year. CNN- Amanda Jackson – April 10, 2020

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“Floods of calls and texts to crisis Hotlines reflects Americans’ rising anxiety” – NPR – Yuki Noguchi – May 4, 2020

Laura Meyer, director of PRS CrisisLink in Oakton, VA., which also takes calls for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline told the NPR reporter this:

“It’s a difficult decision because we do know that by sending them into an overburdened health care system, they may or may not get the treatment they need.  The resources may or may not be there, and we’re exposing them to the illness”

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So dear reader those are some factors in the issue of battered women and the spike in calls to helplines across North America and around most western countries.

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If you or someone you know is suffering abuse please seek professional help, call a crisis hotline!

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