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By Tiffany Goodwein

Pandemic doubles pressure on women’s shelters

Dec 13, 2021 | 8:12 PM

Women’s shelters across the province are seeing double the pressures, and that is putting a strain on their operations. That’s according to a new report by the Alberta Council of Women’s shelters which gathered data from dozens of shelters province-wide from April 2020 to March 31, 2021.

The report noted that throughout the pandemic shelters remained open, serving over 66,000 Albertans either through residential stays, outreach services, or calls to shelters.

The need for outreach services, which can occur in a person’s home, nearly doubled with over 6, 100 people receiving services. That includes counselling, safety planning, and finding affordable housing.

But while demand for outreach services increased, admissions to residential shelters decreased despite a rise in domestic violence. The report from the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters said a woman’s level of danger remains at an all-time high in the province.

Natasha Carvalho, executive director of the Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter Society, said the public health restrictions which advised people to stay at home likely prevented some women from accessing support services sooner.

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“Women need to get out of their homes to get out of family violence situations on a good day, and when it is not safe to be in their homes, and they are stuck at home and they are stuck now with their abuser, the risk is so much higher and the opportunity to leave are gone because they are under a health restriction,” she said.

As an example, Carvalho said once the restrictions eased their 30-bed shelter reached full capacity within the first day.

“That just really showed us that people really just needed to get out of the situations that are not safe at all, she said.

Carvalho said it is important for people to know that shelter services are available for people if they need to escape an abusive situation. The shelter even has an isolation room for people who may be displaying symptoms.

“We are not turning people away because of COVID-19. We definitely are saying to people even if they have symptoms please come in because we don’t want people to be in unsafe situations because they are symptomatic because for them it could be a life or death situation sometimes so they need to be able to feel safe” she said.

Carvalho noted that the past 20 months has only amplified what shelter officials knew about domestic violence in their communities.

“We know that the abuse has gotten worse, the types of abuse has gotten worse. We are seeing much more strangulation. So there are a lot of heightened concerns as well as there is a lot of mental health and addiction in our community and people are really struggling,” she said, noting it is important for Hatters to reach out to those struggling.