Fewer hotline calls is not good news right now
Child neglect or abuse calls to the Indiana Department of Child Services hotline has decreased by 44% since the pandemic started. Good news, right?
Not so fast.
“Though child maltreatment reports have decreased during the pandemic, this may be due to children being home and not in school with mandated reporters. It may be difficult for teachers and other mandated reporters to determine abuse or neglect virtually; thus, though maltreatment is continuing …, the incidents are going unreported.” (2021 Kids Count Data Book)
The same phenomenon is occurring among adult victims of intimate partner violence.
Calling it “a pandemic within a pandemic,” the New England Journal of Medicine wrote:
“In some regions, the number of calls [to domestic-violence hotlines] dropped by more than 50%. … Though restrictions on movement have been lifted in most regions, the pandemic and its effects rage on and there is widespread agreement that areas with a drop in caseloads are likely to experience a second surge.”
Sheltering Wings Executive Director Cassie Mecklenburg intimately understands why calls and visits to shelters would drop during isolation. Quoted in TIME, she said, “How much harder is it for [someone] to call when their abuser is quarantining with them, sitting on the couch next to them or in the other room?” In addition, circumstances of intense stress like this pandemic can make it easy to excuse a loved one’s abusive behavior. “Sometimes what happens is people might justify the abuse because the perpetrator is just really stressed and wouldn’t otherwise do this,” she said.
What does all this mean?
It means be an informed consumer of news. Hearing about a decrease in domestic violence calls may sound great, but it hides a deeper, more sinister story.
It means asking people a simple question: “Are you OK?”
- Take time to ask your friends, coworkers and family members if they’re OK. Be ready to listen on their terms when they decide to confide in you. Until then, just let them know you’re there for support.
- If you’re a teacher, use the chat feature on Zoom to ask your students individually how they’re doing. Let them know you’re there if they need to talk to a trustworthy adult.
- Use texting and whatever apps you can to communicate with another, but be careful. Assume that an abuser reads every message your friend or loved one receives. Just letting someone know you care about them can give them strength to leave one day.
Though we’re apart, we all still have a responsibility to love one another. To learn to recognize domestic violence, contact Melissa Echerd to talk about virtual training and check out What is Domestic Violence? at shelteringwings.org.
