Catherine Forbes, a Stopping the Violence Coordinator and outreach worker for the Quesnel Women’s Resource Centre, says there are a number of reasons for that…
“And one of the reasons for that is people are definitely taking advantage of some of the slowdowns in the court process and things like that, you know they may have been having some family issues, they may have been in court for separation and divorce or custody or something like that.”
Forbes says they also saw an increase in violence during the bad wildfire seasons in the Cariboo as well.
She says the RCMP are still responding to extreme violence situations, and they are still part of the process as well when women are being brought to the detachment or the transition house.
But Forbes says the delivery of some of their other services are a little different during this time…
“Right now we are manning the phones and people can leave messages and we’ll answer those messages in as timely a way as we can. And we are offering our services either by phone or remotely in some way. If you want to do Facebook or Skype or something like that.”
Forbes says outreach is a little trickier…
“We’re sort of looking at those things on a case by case basis. If it’s something that is crucial that we have to attend with a woman, then absolutely we will. We’ll just take the precautions that we need to, in terms of maybe a face mask or physical distancing, or whatever we can do to be there for someone.”
Forbes says the RCMP are still responding to violent cases of abuse as well.
She says they can be reached by phone at (250) 992-8472 or online at [email protected].