HOME FOR ABUSED MEN

Come next year, Government will open four shelters for victims of domestic violence, including one specifically for battered men, Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister Jacqueline Johnson said yesterday. Police statistics show 25 per cent of reports of domestic violence are made by men.

Johnson yesterday told the Joint Select Committee on rights, equality and diversity, in a follow-up inquiry into the implementation of the 2015 report of the committee, that many times abused men had nowhere to go for relief from the home environment. She said there have been some achievements since the stakeholders’ recommendations were made.

The four new government-run facilities, Johnson said, will supplement the eight safe homes currently run by non-governmental organisations.

However, none of the eight shelters cater for men or for boys over ten. At present, she said, the Ministry of Works is refurbishing two residential-type three-bedroom units, one of which will be assigned to men. The other will be for women.

The two new facilities under construction are to accommodate 52 women and children, including boys over ten. It was noted that some women have stayed in abusive relationship because they did not want to leave their sons behind. The construction of the two new facilities, Johnson reported, was significantly delayed because of contractors demobilising their equipment because of a lack of funding.

“We have been able to raise a government-guaranteed loan to make payments and the construction has restarted,” she said. The executing agency, Nipdec, she said, has indicated that one of the buildings will be handed over in December and other by the end of January 2018. JSC chairman Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said police data showed 11,441 reports of domestic violence were made between 2010 and 2015, of which 75 per cent were related to female victims, and 131 domestic violence related-death, 56 of which were females.

“Since 2015 the statistics do not show a marked decrease in domestic violence,” she said. Since 2015 to the present, she said, there had been at least 14 domestic-violence-related deaths and more than 1,500 reports of domestic violence. This situation, she said, prompted the committee to see where the implementation of the stakeholders’ recommendations for rectifying the problems were.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Development and Family Affairs Jacintha Bailey-Sobers said the issue continues to be an especially worrying one for policy-makers and practitioners, and the current economic situation has the potential to increase tension in families.

The implementation of the ministry’s National Social Mitigation Plan, developed in collaboration with the Health Economic Unit of the University of the West Indies, to cushion the impact of the economic downturn on the population, she said, was timely and relevant. It was approved in August.

It includes a number of initiatives to support the family, especially vulnerable ones, and will address other issues such as values, attitudes and behaviour of the population, and focus on the empowerment of vulnerable families. In the coming weeks, Bailey-Sobers said, the ministry will meet with stakeholders to roll out the five-year National Social Mitigation Plan.

The National Parenting Policy, she said, will also be laid in the Parliament this fiscal year and the development of a national family policy with the aim of strengthening families will also be undertaken in this fiscal year.

Asked about the critical staffing shortages reported about previously, Johnson said some positions have been filled. The Gender Affairs Division, she said, has been given approval to recruit some staff, and was seeking to renew some positions and have some new positions created. The renewal notice was dealt with by the Public Management Consulting Division (PMCD) and is before Cabinet for approval, while the creation of the new positions is before the PMCD for consideration.