A helpline for perpetrators of domestic abuse who are seeking help to change their behavior has received 25 percent more calls as a lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
The Respect hotline, which provides confidential advice to perpetrators about violence and domestic abuse, had a 26.86 percent increase in calls in the week starting on Monday last week, compared with the week prior.
The hotline’s Web site recorded a 125 percent increase in hits in the same period.
The Men’s Advice Line for male victims of domestic abuse, which is also run by the charity Respect, had an increase in calls of 16.6 percent in the same week, while its Web site registered an increase in traffic of 42 percent.
The figures come as Refuge, the UK’s largest domestic abuse charity, reported a 120 percent increase in calls to its helpline, which provides advice and facilitates referrals to refuge accommodation, in the 24 hours following a fresh round of publicity on Monday.
Recently appointed British Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds has called on the government to provide an emergency financial package to organizations providing domestic abuse support services during the pandemic.
Experts in the field have warned that abusers and their partners having to self-isolate together at home might lead to an increase in abusive behavior and violence due to the pressure-cooker effect of being trapped indoors.
The Respect hotline offers advice to individuals who have been violent toward their partners or are fearful that conditions of the lockdown would lead to them losing control of their behavior.
There was an initial dip in calls at the start of the lockdown, but an increase was recorded last week.
“At the moment, what we’re doing, the Respect phone line and our members, we’re looking at de-escalation and self-management techniques. Those ideas about helping someone maintain non-harmful, non-abusive behaviors,” former Respect services, research and development manager Sara Kirkpatrick said.
“We’re opening up to respond to a broader range of issues,” said Kirkpatrick, who left Respect at the end of last week to take up the role of chief executive of Welsh Women’s Aid.
“Usually, there are some things we would move someone on to a different source of support — issues relating to mental health and relationship issues that under normal circumstances aren’t actually perpetrating domestic abuse, and are just people feeling stress and anxiety,” she said.
“We will be offering support to those people, because actually in difficult times we don’t want situations to escalate. A lot of the resources we have available will be about helping people to de-escalate difficult situations and manage themselves in a crisis,” she added.
“Callers are more concerned about being indoors more and worried about not being able to control their own behavior, and feeling quite hopeless and helpless as there are more limitations on the other services they can get to, which increases anxiety even more,” Kirkpatrick said.
The charity’s member organizations that work with perpetrators have had to move to non-face-to-face work, she said.
Some domestic violence perpetrator programs are based on a model similar to Alcoholics Anonymous. Men who have been abusive in variety of ways, physical and emotional, get together under supervision, discuss their experiences and use a variety of interactive exercises to help them understand the effects of their behavior.
At the start of lockdown procedures being announced, Refuge undertook a huge technological operation and moved its helpline — usually located in a cybersecure office environment — to an entirely remote system.
On Monday, the charity revealed that calls to the helpline had increased 25 percent in the previous week.
Following significant media coverage of the statistics, calls and contacts logged on the following day were up by 120 percent from the previous day.
“This is an enormous increase, which underscores what we already know — domestic abuse is a scourge on society and must be addressed,” Refuge chief executive Sandra Horley said.
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