Domestic abuse facing men

The Calgary Counseling Centre has been dealing with a unique issue for a number of years now. Men who suffer from domestic abuse. The Male Domestic Abuse Program delivers services to those same men. The program delivers outreach support, connecting clients with community resources, and offers a 14-week therapy group for men who have experienced partner-abuse. Stefan de Villiers is the coordinator of the program at the Calgary Counselling Centre. He spoke at SACPA and said the pandemic has amplified the domestic abuse men are facing.

“Many of us are staying at home more than before. Those kinds of coercive behaviors that involve stalking, or things like monitoring other people’s movements. Things like monitoring who they’re talking to. There’s not as much privacy now because everybody is sort of limited in where you can go. That certainly has had I think a negative impact on men’s experiences of intimate partner abuse.”

Stats Canada released a report in 2018 outlining that 36 per cent of men reported some form of psychological, physical, or sexual violence by a partner. When women completed the questionnaire it was 44 per cent.