Abuse reports decreased at height of pandemic, but incidents continued

By Sahar Chmais

Numbers can be deceiving. The Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center (HCWC) observed this bitter truth during the heights of the pandemic that silenced the voice of many abuse victims.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the number of people seeking housing and other help from the HCWC went down and the number of reported child-abuse cases decreased. That is not because sexual, physical and mental abuse was dissolving; rather, people were no longer reaching out for help because they were stunted by the fear of the coronavirus.