In Canada, domestic violence accounts for more than a quarter of all reported violent crimes, and the vast majority of these are crimes against women. Children experience the trauma of domestic violence as witnesses to violence and, in many cases, as direct physical and emotional abuse.

Still, about 80% of domestic violence goes unreported, meaning that this crisis far exceeds what we see and know on the surface.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, women, men and children experiencing domestic violence are now being forced to isolate at home with their abusers. Physical distancing measures together with job losses, financial instability, public closures, stress of family responsibilities, and isolation from social networks are all putting extreme pressure on households.

Not surprisingly, staff at Community Health Centres (CHCs) across the country have seen an alarming upswing in calls and other encounters for domestic violence, mostly with women.

“Most of the things people would do previously to cope and to get relief from home are now closed or forbidden,” says Elizabete Halprin, a social worker at Norwest Co-op Community Health Centre in Winnipeg where she heads the family violence program that includes counselling and therapy services for women and children.

“Already, we are seeing an increase in calls by five-folds, in a matter of weeks, from women looking for help,” explains Halprin about why they extended the hours of their support line called A Woman’s Place. “During those calls, women are asking about separation, divorce, their custody rights, and help with their mental health. Some have disclosed that they are using alcohol and other substances more frequently to cope.”

In Toronto, Black Creek Community Health Centre, in the city’s Jane and Finch community, recently received a mental health call from a young woman who gradually revealed that she has become a victim of domestic violence during the pandemic, struggling to understand what to do.

“Domestic violence is a grave health issue, with many layers and carrying stigma and shame for many people,” says Cheryl Prescod, Executive Director at Black Creek CHC. “We know that women who reach out to Community Health Centres will get the help they need, and we are here to support them wherever they are on their journey, through our own services and through our local partnerships.”

One of Black Creek CHC’s most recent partnerships is with North York Women’s Shelter, where the CHC will be co-located in the shelter to provide primary care services to both women in the shelter and from the community who are dealing with domestic violence.

On the east coast, Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre and Sexual Assault Services Association is a Community Health Centre serving rural and small-town communities in the Antigonish region of Nova Scotia. Their primary care and social services include a sexual assault centre, therapeutic counselling, and sexual assault nurse examiner services, while working closely with local transition houses to refer women to those supports in specific cases of domestic violence. The CHC is now attuning many of its ongoing services and programs to address the gendered impact of COVID-19.

“There is definitely an increase in domestic violence, which is part of a broader trend we are seeing related to the impact of this pandemic on women,” says Wyanne Sandler, Executive Director of the organization.

“Women face increased health risks every day due to their high representation in vulnerable frontline jobs, the burden of household responsibilities, the lack of childcare, and other systemic gaps and inequities. These are intersecting and compounding even further during the pandemic.”

Sandler says that supporting girls and women experiencing these risks and impacts, including domestic violence, comes with particular challenges in smaller and rural settings due to issues of confidentiality and limited social and economic opportunities.

Janice Abbott, CEO of Atira Women’s Resource Society, in British Columbia, echoes these messages about the spike in violence against women and its connection to much broader social, economic and health inequities.

“We’re encouraged to see the public’s attention being drawn to the spike in violence against women during the pandemic,” says Abbott, “but we need the public and our policymakers to keep up this focus and commit to addressing root causes, which are entrenched in social and economic inequities, and compounded by misogyny, racism, ableism, ageism and other forms of oppression.. These are all systemic issues requiring significant and systemic policy responses.”

Her Community Health Centre is also adapting and scaling up efforts to address the impacts being felt by women during the pandemic, including the spike in violence. As a Community Health Centre serving the areas of Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby and White Rock, Atira Women’s Resource Society provides housing, shelter, outreach, primary care, and a range of other services and programs to women experiencing violence.

As part of their surge response to COVID-19, they have opened an emergency call line for women who need food, supplies and/or emotional support, and have also opened a 49-unit temporary transition house in Vancouver. They have also partnered with the provincial government and local health authority to open two facilities to shelter and care for people who are homeless and COVID-19 positive. In addition, Atira has opened a respite tent near Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which offers women respite from the chaos and violence of street life.

These combined efforts during the pandemic add to the growing chorus of Community Health Centres on the frontlines of prevention, care and support for individuals experiencing homelessness.

Across Canada, Community Health Centres (CHCs) provide a wide range of primary health, health promotion, and social services for individuals and families in diverse urban and rural communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CHCs are adapting their services and programs to support individuals, families and groups experiencing an increased risk of COVID-19 infection, as well as secondary risks caused by or worsened by the pandemic such as poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, language barriers, and other social inequities.