By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
A disturbing picture about the increase in violence against women is presented in the Thrive Northumberland Annual Community Report on Violence Against Women.
Reports from three local police services between 2017 and 2019 show a 17.7% increase in domestic incidents, according to the Thrive press release, and a 23.1% increase in domestic occurrences where criminal charges were laid.
During the same period, victim services for the region experienced a 40.5% increase in responding to domestic violence, sexual assault and human-trafficking situations, while the number of women and children served in shelter increased by 27.8% and 14.6% respectively.
Thrive Northumberland is one of the provincial Violence Against Women Community Coordinating Committees funded by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, representing more than 20 community agencies and service providers that address domestic abuse, sexual assault and gender-based violence in and around Northumberland County.
And Thrive project co-ordinator Nicole Beatty said in the announcement that their work is essential to ensuring women have immediate access to the supports they need when experiencing or fleeing violence.
Each year the coalition undertakes a research project and publishes the findings in the annual report to measure the success and strength of the community by the health and well-being of women and children.
This year’s report paints a stark picture about gender-based violence in our community.
The number of women served in shelter continues to rise significantly, impacting the number of women unable to be served in shelter.
Women are steadily accessing community crisis counselling and sexual assault counselling.
Police report a rise in domestic occurrences.
Response is rapidly rising to calls involving domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.
There is a troubling discrepancy between the high number of violent occurrences against women being reported and the number of female visits to the domestic violence and sexual assault nurse examiner.
There is an apparent disconnect between the population of women and children experiencing violence who are being served by social service agencies compared to the number of incidences being reported by the local community hospital emergency department.
More women are accessing 24-hour telephone support lines.
Thrive Northumberland strives for a streamlined approach to providing coordinated access to support systems for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and human trafficking to remove barriers to system navigation and stimulate a collaborative response to systemic issues surrounding violence against women.
To this end, they call upon members of the public and community leaders to study the details of this report, as well as the services and supports available to women and children who are experiencing violence.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
