An Ontario emergency department saw a “drastic drop” in sexual assault victims in the first months of the pandemic, more evidence of a concerning trend that the lockdown, social isolation and fear of COVID-19 has stopped some women from getting help.
The Ottawa Hospital saw 50 per cent fewer patients who’d suffered injuries from sexual violence or domestic abuse between March 4 to May 5, 2020 compared to the same period in 2018, found a study published Thursday.
That does not mean gender-based violence has stopped occurring, the authors note. It’s actually likely increased because of pandemic-related stress, said Dr. Kari Sampsel, medical director of the hospital’s Sexual Assault and Partner Abuse Care Program, the only emergency department service of its kind in the Ottawa region.
She noticed early on in the first lockdown how quiet not only the emergency department had become, but also the sexual assault program.
“We knew that there was not less violence going on out in the world,” Sampsel told HuffPost Canada. “It’s that people aren’t able to get to us at our specialty program and that was majorly concerning for us.”
The number of survivors coming to the hospital has remained lower than usual for the entire pandemic, but went up slightly after the first wave ended, she said, although that research isn’t complete yet.
The hospital saw fewer survivors because they may have been unable to leave their home, trapped with a violent or controlling partner and interacting with fewer people who could’ve helped, said Katherine Muldoon, the study’s lead researcher and epidemiologist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.
“For some people, home is the most dangerous place to be.”
- Dr. Kari Sampsel, the Ottawa Hospital
There was also a very real fear last spring of contracting COVID-19 during a hospital visit, or exacerbating an already strained medical system.
“Unfortunately with sexual assault and domestic violence survivors, many don’t feel like thier issues are important enough to go into clinical care,” Muldoon said. “And so this may have been amplified during the early stages.”
The researchers found most violence happened in either the survivor’s or assailant’s home, while the number of assaults outdoors, including in cars, jumped from 5 per cent in 2018 to 23 per cent in 2020. They also reported a significant increase in psychological abuse, from 11 per cent to 29 per cent.
“Sexual assault and intimate partner violence is a disturbingly common phenomenon, even outside of pandemic times,” Sampsel said. “This is a significant public health concern. Home is not just watching Tiger King, eating a lot of crappy food and having a good time. For some people, home is the most dangerous place to be.”
She worries about how survivors will recover physically and psychologically if they don’t get the care they need during the pandemic. It’s also difficult for them to pursue criminal charges if they can’t document their injuries for evidence.
Violence against women and girls has been called a “shadow pandemic” by the United Nations, as the COVID-19 crisis fuels social isolation and worries about health, safety and money.
Helplines for women experiencing violence at home reported a dramatic call increase in 2020 and the severity of callers’ situations have intensified. One sexual assault support centre in Waterloo Region told HuffPost it had seen a 55 per cent increase in counselling requests in the last quarter of 2020, compared to the year before.
Ottawa Victim Services initially saw a drop in clients, said executive director Melissa Heimerl, a co-author of the study. She said some of her clients weren’t reaching out because they felt they couldn’t do so safely, with their partner working from home.
“Victimization hadn’t stopped, it had just gone silent because there was no ability for people to reach out for support as they had in the past,” Heimerl said.
In April, Ottawa Victim Services launched Unsafe at Home, an encrypted text and chat service to connect them with support in a discreet way. Three hundred people used it in the first month.
The researchers want their evidence to help inform political commitments and public policy — and to send the message that the hospital is open to all sexual assault and domestic violence survivors, even in a pandemic.
“One of the things that (this research) shows us is that it’s not just having services available, but reducing barriers as much as possible so that people can get the help they need,” Muldoon said.
If you need help or support, visit the Canadian Association Of Sexual Assault Centres website to find resources near you. Connect to a domestic violence line to call or text in your province or territory.