Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter to officially welcome male victims and their children

By Collin Gallant on September 27, 2018.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

Men who seek to leave abusive relationships could access emergency housing at the Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter starting next month, it was announced Wednesday at the shelter’s annual general meeting.

While administrators say it is a change in operational policy, it’s not a change in mandate to help those who experience domestic violence.

“Specifically, ours is a family violence shelter,” said executive director Natasha Carvalho.

“Primarily it’s still a women’s issue, and primarily it’s women who experience violence, but there are men out there who are hurting and need support as well. It’s taken us a while to shift, but it’s time.”

The change could mean men and their children being housed at the emergency shelter, and other supports made available.

Current clients at the shelter have been informed the change in procedure will take effect on Oct. 1.

The change is an extension of work that began four years ago with Safe Families Intervention Team, which works with both partners in a troubled relationship. Sometimes, Carvalho says, that includes men who seek aid.

She said the group has had four requests in the past year from men seeking shelter or access to services, like daycare or further counselling, which had typically been accessed by women.

The need right now is “not huge, but it’s enough” to consider expansion, said Carvalho.

The society will also begin expanding its interaction with the LGBTQ community in the vein of healthy relationship training, according to administrators.

They say violence between two men in an intimate relationship is now being considered.

Societal stigmas that men should be strong enough to fend off physical abuse from a woman still persist, as does the feeling that men should be financially stable enough to “go it alone” when they leave a relationship.

“We’re saying that’s not always the case, and we’re here to help,” said Carvalho, adding physical abuse is complicated, and emotional and verbal abuse can be debilitating, which presents large barriers to those looking for independence.

There are male shelters are available for homelessness, and for families, but little is available for men with children who need transitional housing.

“It’s part of a larger plan to be more inclusive to our community,” said Shelter Society president Brent Secondiak.

“There’s a substantial number of male victims as well. And there’s a gap there that we’ve noticed in that there’s no place for male victims to go. There are shelters in Alberta that do, and we’ve looked into best practices.”

Secondiak, an inspector with the Medicine Hat Police Service, said one-fifth of domestic assault charges the department lays involve a male victim.

The accused in those cases can either be male, in the case of gay relationships, but women as well.

Carvalho said the shelter shouldn’t be thought of as a female only facility. There are male employees, she said, and a conscious effort is made to present positive male role models to children whose own fathers may have been physically or verbally abusive.

During the lunch meeting, a female client who had worked with counsellors spoke about gaining support and building up courage and resources to end a marriage after her husband had an affair.

“My life felt like a plane wreck, and without a safe place to go, I don’t know where I’d be,” she said.

The annual meeting of the society also heard that a gain in grants and donations against lower expenses in the 2017-2018 year meant a contingency fund would grow.

“We’re healthy,” said Secondiak. “We’ve worked hard to be in that position.”

25
-24

Comments are closed.