COVID-19 lockdowns and impact on deaf survivors of domestic violence / sexual assault
ALEX:
Here is a report from Renca Dunn that will look at the potential impact of lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders on those suffering from domestic violence or sexual assault. After the report, I will share some statements on a separate topic.
RENCA DUNN:
Thank you, Alex.
It has been several weeks that some states are in a lockdown as we are all self-quarantining. One of the discussions that we saw arise online was the likely increase of domestic violence and sexual assault during the time of self-quarantine. There was an article from NBC talking about how the police in Houston shared that they have received more than 300 domestic violence calls in the month of March which was a 20% increase from February. Cherokee County in South Carolina said they noticed a 35% increase in the month of March.
We wondered how this COVID-19 impacts the survivors in our Deaf community so we decided to reach out to three DV/SA organizations: Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services (ADWAS) in Washington State, Deaf Overcoming Violence through Empowerment (DOVE) in Colorado, and Deaf DAWN in D.C. to share some insights.
Rosina Garcia, Deaf DAWN:
We are now taking this COVID-19 outbreak seriously. Many people are being cautioned to stay at home, to wash their hands and not go out to socialize. This is a great collective response to mitigate the spread of the virus. However, it can lead to more violence like, for example, some people who are forced to stay home may live in areas that are not always safe. Often deaf people in our community rely on visual or tactile communication and now, that access has disappeared because they’re forced to stay home. They are being forced to rely heavily on text messaging and to constantly read English online. This may result in a higher risk of conflicting and inconsistent information.
Some people are concerned by the increase in violence and they don’t know how to identify these actions. It is difficult for us to provide exact examples because the current research is still not clear. The only research we have comes from the population in Wuhan, China that showed an increase in violence at home. This could mean child abuse, family violence or work violence. After the virus outbreak started to dissipate, reports of violence steadily increased. In the United States, there’s been a large increase of calls to the suicide hotline along with several hotlines for Domestic Violence (DV/SA).
This may be an example of DV/SA. Often, the person who is causing harm tends to use control and power. This person may attempt to limit your calls and interactions with other people. Access to information might be limited. If a victim is notified that they have COVID-19 then this can make the situation even worse. This would make the victim even more fearful or their abuser might say that they have COVID-19 which means they probably gave it to their victim. So now, they are cut off from their families because they can’t visit in person. Also, they might be restricted from not seeing their children and that can lead to them becoming depressed.
Libby Stanley, ADWAS:
Isolation is a key tactic in abusive relationships. Now, with the coronavirus outbreak, that means we need to isolate ourselves and stay home. Not allowing any socializing leads to an increase of isolation. People who cause harm to another can make it even more isolating for the survivors. They may attempt to cut off your contact with families and friends. They could cut off your videophone or monitor your calls. They tend to make you feel like you can’t do certain things. The person causing harm may blame a survivor for loss of income, for causing more stress at home, or blaming the victim. They could threaten survivors by saying if they become sick, they could be kicked out of their homes. They may refuse to help if a survivor becomes sick. Also, if there is physical harm caused by sexual assault and they need medical attention, the survivor might be too afraid to seek that medical attention. They may be too afraid to go to a hospital because there’s a risk they might get sick at the hospital. The abuser may use that fear to their advantage because they know the survivor won’t ask for help. Courthouses are more limited in their capacity and they’ve resorted to more phone-based services. Is that type of service easily accessible for deaf survivors? Not necessarily, it actually leads to more barriers and challenges.
Rosina Garcia, Deaf DAWN:
There are numerous different circumstances to consider based on the region or groups, such as race, age, and more. So, if you are not sure if you are experiencing violence, please reach out to us or any other DV/SA agencies. We’d be happy to provide you the help you need and we’re still open!
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RENCA DUNN:
We also asked them how we, as a community, can help survivors during this time as we collectively quarantine ourselves.
Avi Haimowitz, DOVE:
Please do reach out to your friends and family members. You can just check on them and ask how they’re doing. You can listen as they confide in you. They need to bounce around ideas on how to stay safe at home during this time. You can provide that support just by listening. You can offer help with their kids by keeping them entertained through FaceTime or different video platforms if that’s an option for you. You could help by offering to drop off food at home for other people if they’re stuck or can’t leave their houses due to their abusers not allowing it. You can help by throwing out ideas as well. Avoid automatically assuming that the survivors need to leave their homes or assuming that they should call the police, or they should call 9-1-1. That’s not always the best and safest option for many people. Remember that survivors know what’s best for themselves. Sometimes, what they need is someone who will listen and empathize. You can look for resources or look for advocacy programs like DOVE or other sibling agencies in other states. Also, remember that there’s a risk that the survivor’s abusive partner may be monitoring their conversations via texts or videochat. They might be watching from afar so let the survivors tell you right now, when it’s a good time for them to open up and share their feelings.
RENCA DUNN:
We want to thank these three organizations for sharing their insights. All of the organizations mentioned that their hotlines are available. You can reach out to them through VP or email too. They remain open and will try to serve you as the best way possible. Links to all three organizations are in this transcript. We have also included other Deaf SV/SA agencies as well. We also want to mention that April is Sexual Assault Awareness month.
While we are staying home and staying safe, take in consideration that not everyone is in the same situation. So, it is important for us to be considerate of how we can support each other in different ways. This is a tough time for all of us.
ALEX:
Thank you Renca for reaching out to those three organizations and for helping us to understand the serious issues that may come up during this time.
Now, I want to mention that during the process of working on this story, I received feedback and constructive criticism on how “The Daily Moth” has covered stories that involved domestic violence or sexual assault in the past. I was able to sit down with three DV/SA organizations via video call and we talked about how news coverage of DV/SA incidents can have an impact on the survivors and their perception. I want to continue to improve in how we provide news and I want to say I stand in solidarity with the important work that DV/SA agencies are doing.
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Links:
NBC: https://www.nbcsandiego.com/.../us-police-rise.../2299872/
DV/SA agencies:
Barrier Free Living (NYC) - https://www.bflnyc.org/
Deaf DAWN (DC) - https://deafdawn.org
ADWAS (Washington)- https://www.adwas.org
DOVE (Colorado)- https://deafdove.org
DeafHOPE and DeafSAFE (California) - http://www.deaf-hope.org and http://norcalcenter.org/deafsafe
Deaf SHARE (Texas) - https://www.safeaustin.org/.../face-to-face.../deaf-share/
Deaf Iowans Against Abuse (Iowa) - https://www.diaaiowa.org
ThinkSelf (Minnesota)- https://thinkself.org
Deaf Access of Arizona- http://www.deafaccessofaz.com
ODSC (Massachusetts)- https://www.odscunity.org/about-us
Sego Lily (Utah) - www.slcad.org
Find more Deaf DV/SA agencies here: https://www.odscunity.org/deaf-dv-sv-agencies