'An alarming rate': Women's Resource Center adapts to meet rising domestic abuse concerns
NORTHERN MICHIGAN — The severity of domestic violence incidents in Northern Michigan is on the rise, according to Chris Krajewski, director of the Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan's domestic abuse and sexual assault program.
Krajewski said the increase in people working from home and avoiding public spaces during COVID-19 has exacerbated the domestic abuse problem, but has allowed the Women's Resource Center to develop new virtual and mobile support systems to help victims today.
“The pandemic forced us to create more options for survivors — like Zoom calls or mobile apps that provide services in different methods," said Krajewski. “Many survivors lived in a trapped life during the pandemic ... and still do even after the pandemic."
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With offices in Cheboygan, Gaylord, Mancelona and Petoskey, the Women’s Resource Center addresses an estimated 500 cases of intimate partner violence and sexual assault each year.
Krajewski said the patterns they saw during the pandemic helped them to understand that they needed to adjust to accommodate victims.
One of the most revealing data points to come out of the pandemic were the pauses, according to Krajewski. There were time periods during the shutdown in which calls for assistance were not coming in at all.
Krajewski said this was when they knew that they had to do things differently, as they knew the silence didn’t mean abuse wasn’t occurring. It just meant that victims weren’t able to reach out anymore.
“The pauses were the terrifying parts of the pandemic for us,” said Krajewski.
“We knew then that we needed to shift gears because people needed to reach out to us," she said. "They were living with their perpetrators who were home all the time. So we shifted a lot of our services to allow victims to connect with advocates and therapists while their partners were at home."
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With many people closed-in, possibly with their abuser, the center was pushed to explore creative ways for victims to reach out for support and different types of assistance.
“Many programs shifted to providing virtual services and mobile services," Krajewski said.
Krajewski said there was an increase in severe injuries during this time, but noted that not all victims suffer from physical abuse.
“Many perpetrators never go to physical violence,” she said, adding that emotional abuse is isolating, minimizing and intimidating.
Krajewski said despite any specific situation, the prevalence of domestic abuse has been a constant.
"Intimate partner violence is happening at an alarming rate on a regular basis all the time," she said.
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 36.1 percent of Michigan women and 25.8 percent of Michigan men experience intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner rape and/or intimate partner stalking in their lives.
The Women's Resource Center of Northern Michigan is available 24/7 at (800) 275-1995.
Victims of domestic violence can also contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline 24 hours a day at (800) 799-7233 or text the word "START" to 88788. Live chat is available anytime of day at www.thehotline.org.
— Contact reporter Annie Doyle at (231) 675-0099 or adoyle@charlevoixcourier.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Women's Resource Center adapts to meet rising domestic abuse concerns
