Surge in violence during recession

Christchurch women's refuges have seen a huge jump in women asking for help as the recession bites and are also concerned that more children are abusing their parents.

Battered Women's Trust manager Lois Herbert said there had been an "extraordinary increase" in the number of community clients women they help who continue to live in the community, rather than going into a safe house.

"There's been a 60 per cent increase in a couple of years that's huge," she said.

In the year to June, the trust had 360 long-term community clients compared with about 200 in the year to June 2007.

Herbert said she believed the jump was due to the the combination of the It's Not OK campaign and the recession.

"With the economic circumstances, maybe people have lost their jobs. There's often a feeling of being insecure financially. There's a lot of stress out there.

"We hear about people who lose their jobs and turn to alcohol and drugs."

The increasing demand on the trust's services had forced it to open a new community office and double the number of community advocates, while calls to the crisis line had also increased dramatically.

Herbert said the trust had also noticed more parents being abused by their children.

"The number is not large, but it's definitely increasing. With teenagers, it's both boys and girls, and there are also cases of children who are even younger.

"But, distressingly, there are also more reported incidents of adult children abusing elderly parents."

Herbert said she had just been working with an elderly couple who had been abused by an adult child with alcohol and money problems.

"They just couldn't see how they could report their own child to the police.

"So there was a lot of work to be done supporting them to put safety plans in place."

Herbert said the trust came across cases like this weekly, but she was sure they were just the tip of the iceberg.

Christchurch Women's Refuge manager Annette Gillespie said the refuge had also noticed an upsurge in violence by young people towards parents and grandparents.

"It's often financial abuse," she said.

"We've certainly noticed young people using emotional violence to access money."

Gillespie said her organisation worked with the parent or grandparent to help them secure their money and empower them to turn down the demands.

"There's a lot of pressure to keep saying `yes'; there's the emotional attachment as well as the fear.

"They have to say `no' and be prepared to call the police."

Gillespie said the problem had probably worsened due to the recession, because many young people were being forced to return home.

The refuge had experienced a 30 per cent increase in demand for all its services during the past year.

"We've seen an increase for the last 12 months, but it spiked about six to eight months ago and has stayed steady since then.

"... families are contacting us because the violence has escalated because of the economy."

- © Fairfax NZ News