Tracking abuse against men

Enlarge Image

‘It’s important to have a properly staffed, 24-hour centre for men,’ says Duane Lesper­ance, program manager at the Men’s Resource Centre (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Enlarge Image

Anna Pazdzierski is head of Nova House in Selkirk and says it would be tough to justify the expense of a dedicated men-only shelter. (MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Abused men in Manitoba need more services aimed at their specific needs, say local experts who work with men and women who suffer domestic violence.

Carol Ellerbeck, executive director of Osborne House, said the women's shelter's 24-hour crisis line regularly receives calls from men who need help dealing with violence at home. Osborne House is participating with the Men's Resource Centre in a new project to track how many abused men seek help and determine their distinct needs.

The project is the work of the 24-hour Osborne House and the daytime-only Men's Resource Centre. The groups realized abused men who sought help were sometimes placed in hotels for their safety but didn't always get regular face-to-face counselling.

Manitoba has no agency offering 24-hour service specifically for abused men, and officials at Osborne House and the Men's Resource Centre say one is needed.

"When you think of it, when most of the shelters started out as very small places, like little homes with maybe rooms for six people. So why not do the same for men?" Ellerbeck said.

In the last three months, her agency's crisis line has received 12 calls from men seeking help, one of whom workers helped place in a hotel for his safety. She said the volume of calls from men has often been higher.

"I guess the way I look at it: do you need to have numbers to justify a shelter?" Ellerbeck said.

"Does it have to be a numbers game? Or is it the fact that we as a society acknowledge the fact that men find themselves in this circumstance also, and why shouldn't they have access to shelter?"

A man was the victim in about 14 per cent of the domestic charges Winnipeg police laid in 2008, according to police statistics. Men's Resource Centre program manger Duane Lesperance said his agency, which offers counselling programs to men, helped eight to 10 men leave their homes and find shelter in a hotel in the last year.

Statistics Canada reported in 2005 -- the most recent stats available -- that seven per cent of Canadians 15 years and over in common-law or married relationships experienced spousal violence in the previous five years.

About seven per cent of Canadian women reported that abuse, compared with six per cent of men. Women were more likely to experience serious spousal violence such as being beaten or choked, and were more likely to fear for their lives.

Those surveys also show smaller numbers of men have the same concerns. Lesperance said men who suffer physical or mental abuse often are loathe to say they are victims of domestic violence. Generally, those who do step forward are suffering severe violence.

It's acknowledged that most domestic-violence victims are women, but male victims face different barriers. They must deal with feeling demasculinized at admitting they're victims of domestic abuse, and generally, few services are available to them, and those that are, aren't designed specifically for men's needs.

Men who need help are most likely to seek it on Friday nights when the Men's Resource Centre is closed, Lesperance said. Currently, men who call after-hours are helped by Osborne House until the Men's Resource Centre opens.

Lesperance estimates about half the men who access help over the weekend and go to a hotel leave before Men's Resource Centre staff can make contact with them.

"That's the outcome of this service, is that guys are isolated," Lesperance said. "It's important to have a properly staffed, 24-hour centre for men," but one stumbling block to that is funders' 'reluctance' to recognize male victims.

Experts on domestic violence in Manitoba agree that men need better services for escaping domestic abuse, but not all agree with Lesperance that a shelter for men is the way to go.

Anna Pazdzierski, executive director of Selkirk's Nova House, said only about six men have sought help from her women's shelter since 2000. She believes it would be difficult to fund a shelter when the demand is so small.

"We just can't have beds sitting empty and staff sitting there twiddling their thumbs," she said.

Pazdzierski said abused men's needs are different from abused women's, and that dictates a different approach. "When men are needing shelter services, it's not as much to hide from their partner and get safe, as it is to get counselling and get back on their feet and access housing. They don't have the whole need for physical safety."

But Lesperance argues demand would go up for a male shelter if one existed.

"What's being done right now is a disservice."

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

Not domestic bliss

How many domestic calls does the Winnipeg Police Service answer per year?

About 17,000

Total number of domestic-violence calls police attended

2,133

Number of domestic-violence police calls where charges laid

304

Charges laid where men were alleged abuse victims (about 14 per cent)

-- Winnipeg Police Service

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 23, 2009 B1