Domestic Violence Upsurge During COVID Strains Mental Health Resources

As stresses and challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic continue to pile on, a significant shortage of licensed mental health professionals in Michigan is complicating efforts to help victims of domestic abuse and other violent crimes, reports the Oakland (MI) Press.

Jeffrey Jagielski, Assistant Chief of the Southfield (MI) Police Department, says there are several factors playing into the recent increase of violent crimes, “but they all start with people’s behavior.”

“(You have) people locked up together for long periods of time, not knowing how to deal with conflicts that may arise between them,” he said, adding that economic difficulties and “politicization” are additional factors.

Jeff King, police chief in Farmington Hills, MI, reports that in the first quarter of 2020, his city has seen a 45.9 percent increase in violent crime, most significantly with aggravated/felony and sexual assaults.

“One of the factors that quite often is a contributing factor to these rises in violent crime is mental health and substance abuse,” he said. “These are issues that we find when there are increases in violent crime in our city.”

Amanda Luteran, a licensed children and family therapist for Easterseals of Michigan, says children are particularly at risk because of the shortage of mental health professionals.

“I work with kids that are more isolated and not getting the support from their peers or outside sources that they were prior to the pandemic,” she said.

Luteran adds the combination of added workload and staff shortages has made workerburnout a “real problem.”

In Michigan’s Macomb County, where there are 2,434 licensed mental health professionals, calls to the crisis hotline started to go up with the pandemic, says the Macomb Daily.

While the county’s data on violent crime does not show this uptick, grief counselors and victim advocates who work with survivors of domestic violence know the numbers are up.

There are approximately 35 licensed mental health professionals for every 10,000 Michigan residents. These numbers include all licensed mental health professionals who treat emotional disorders, mental health disorders, addiction disorders, and physical disorders that require a counseling intervention as defined by the Michigan Public Health Code.

Based on data provided by the FBI, the U.S. saw about 25 percent more homicides in 2020 than 2019, which is the largest single year increase in the homicide rate since reliable tracking began in 1960.

Sharman Davenport, president and CEO of Turning Point, a nonprofit that helps survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, blames the increase in domestic violence cases on the fact that victims were trapped at home with their abusers and unable to get away to work, to other family members, or even out of the house to defuse the situation.

“The increase started during the shutdown,” he says. At the height of the stay-at home order, the number of calls increased by 25 percent.”

Turning Point’s Forensic Nurse Examiner Program performed 276 exams in a period of nine months. The program normally sees 276 assaults a year.

Similar strains have been reported elsewhere.

“This is a challenge across the country,” said Dr. Debra Penals, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services medical director for behavioral health.

“With everything else going on, mental health workers are people too. Some of their practices are full or they’ve had to pivot because they had to stay home and take care of children. Some of these workers aren’t doing the work full-time as they were before the pandemic.”

Philadelphia’s Anti-Violence Partnership, which treats people experiencing trauma and loss from violence, says it is “stretched thin” by the rise in violent crime.

There were 174 people on the waitlist at the end of June, compared with about 30 people at the same time last year, according to board chairman Brett Roman Williams, the Associated Press reported.

See also: The Crisis in Crisis Counseling, TCR Special Report, Aug. 2, 2021

This summary was prepared by TCR Justice Reporting intern Gabriela Felitto.