We talked early in the Pandemic about how these types of events can significantly impact the issue of domestic violence and abuse. (RCMP in Alberta reported an 11.7% increase in those types of calls between March and September of 2020 compared to the same time in 2019, and then we had Corporal Leanne Beatie, the Domestic Violence Coordinator for the Southern Alberta District, on the podcast just a few episodes ago, talking about how that trend is continuing.) Our concerns that Covid would impact the sector were not unfounded, to say the least.

But as Rowan House Society wraps up its last fiscal year and looks ahead, we are seeing that the Pandemic truly has affected more than just calls to our support line.

We’re seeing quite a difference in the severity of abuse, changes in the overall mental health of clients and their coping mechanisms, lateral violence and people struggling to interact in those in-person settings and just more burnout and turnover in staff.

In this episode, I am joined by Rowan House's new Executive Director, Linette Soldan to discuss these issues and how the sector is moving forward.

I also want to once again include a Warning for this episode, as there is a point where we discuss the topic of strangulation that may be triggering for some listeners.