COVID‐19 and family violence: Is this a perfect storm?

Usher, Kim; Bradbury‐Jones, Caroline; Bhullar, Navjot; Durkin, Joanne; Gyamfi, Naomi; Fatema, Syadani Riyad; Jackson, Debra

doi:10.1111/inm.12876

Cited by 59 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…However, the COVID-19 pandemic raises unique concerns compared to these previously-studied events (Usher et al, 2021). Particularly during the early months of the pandemic, the lack of knowledge about what exactly the novel coronavirus was, uncertainty around how to best protect oneself, and extended periods of social isolation posed distinct psychological and social challenges.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Are you safe to talk?”: Perspectives of Service Providers on Experiences of Domestic Violence During the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2022

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This study aimed to better understand the factors driving reported trends in domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the effect of the pandemic on survivors’ experiences of violence and ability to seek support. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 32 DV service providers operating in organizations across 24 U.S. cities. The majority of providers described a decrease in contact volume when shelter-in-place orders were first established, which they attributed to safety concerns, competing survival priorities, and miscommunication about what resources were available. For most organizations, this decrease was followed by an increase in contacts after the lifting of shelter-in-place orders, often surpassing typical contact counts from the pre-pandemic period. Providers identified survivors’ ability to return to some aspects of their pre-pandemic lives, increased stress levels, and increased lethality of cases as key factors driving this increase. In addition, providers described several unique challenges faced by DV survivors during the pandemic, such as the use of the virus as an additional tool for control by abusers and an exacerbated lack of social support. These findings provide insight into the lived experiences driving observed trends in DV rates during COVID-19. Understanding the impact of the pandemic on survivors can help to shape public health and policy interventions to better support this vulnerable population during future crises.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Are you safe to talk?”: Perspectives of Service Providers on Experiences of Domestic Violence During the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2022

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“…Second, not all users on social and other media platforms are required to allow access to their geotagged location, so, while access was obtained for tens of thousands of geotagged posts, this is still a relatively small proportion of the total of nongeotagged posts across social and other media. However, despite these limitations, our results within this limited data sample have produced insights and metrics that align with existing qualitative trends and research with regards to domestic violence rates and policies within the COVID-19 pandemic [ 77 , 78 ]. Future research will need to add to unstructured social media and news data with analysis from interview or focus group data via traditional qualitative or digital ethnographic methods [ 52 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Public Sentiment and Discourse on Domestic Violence During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia: Analysis of Social Media Posts

Usher¹,

Durkin²,

Martin³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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Background Measuring public response during COVID-19 is an important way of ensuring the suitability and effectiveness of epidemic response efforts. An analysis of social media provides an approximation of public sentiment during an emergency like the current pandemic. The measures introduced across the globe to help curtail the spread of the coronavirus have led to the development of a situation labeled as a “perfect storm,” triggering a wave of domestic violence. As people use social media to communicate their experiences, analyzing public discourse and sentiment on social platforms offers a way to understand concerns and issues related to domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective This study was based on an analysis of public discourse and sentiment related to domestic violence during the stay-at-home periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia in 2020. It aimed to understand the more personal self-reported experiences, emotions, and reactions toward domestic violence that were not always classified or collected by official public bodies during the pandemic. Methods We searched social media and news posts in Australia using key terms related to domestic violence and COVID-19 during 2020 via digital analytics tools to determine sentiments related to domestic violence during this period. Results The study showed that the use of sentiment and discourse analysis to assess social media data is useful in measuring the public expression of feelings and sharing of resources in relation to the otherwise personal experience of domestic violence. There were a total of 63,800 posts across social media and news media. Within these posts, our analysis found that domestic violence was mentioned an average of 179 times a day. There were 30,100 tweets, 31,700 news reports, 1500 blog posts, 548 forum posts, and 7 comments (posted on news and blog websites). Negative or neutral sentiment centered on the sharp rise in domestic violence during different lockdown periods of the 2020 pandemic, and neutral and positive sentiments centered on praise for efforts that raised awareness of domestic violence as well as the positive actions of domestic violence charities and support groups in their campaigns. There were calls for a positive and proactive handling (rather than a mishandling) of the pandemic, and results indicated a high level of public discontent related to the rising rates of domestic violence and the lack of services during the pandemic. Conclusions This study provided a timely understanding of public sentiment related to domestic violence during the COVID-19 lockdown periods in Australia using social media analysis. Social media represents an important avenue for the dissemination of information; posts can be widely dispersed and easily accessed by a range of different communities who are often difficult to reach. An improved understanding of these issues is important for future policy direction. Heightened awareness of this could help agencies tailor and target messaging to maximize impact.

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“…Most of these results try to determine the optimal duration of lockdown considering the physical disease model and economic model. Initiating lockdown is an important decision for a government authority as it is associated with economic (Singh et al, 2020;Mottaleb et al, 2020), medical, social (Dubey et al, 2020;Usher et al, 2021;Kumar and Choudhury, 2021), and political cost (Ren, 2020). The quantitive modeling of these costs is difficult, and sometimes there is a trade-off between different costs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal Lockdown Management using Short Term COVID-19 Prediction Model

Jana¹,

Ghose²

2022

Preprint

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This paper proposes optimal lockdown management policies based on short-term prediction of active COVID-19 confirmed cases to ensure the availability of critical medical resources. The optimal time to start the lockdown from the current time is obtained after maximizing a cost function considering economic value subject to constraints of availability of medical resources, and maximum allowable value of daily growth rate and Test Positive Ratio. The estimated value of required medical resources is calculated as a function of total active cases. The predicted value of active cases is calculated using an adaptive short-term prediction model. The proposed approach can be easily implementable by a local authority. An optimal lockdown case study for Delhi during the second wave in the month of April 2021 is presented using the proposed formulation.

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COVID‐19 and family violence: Is this a perfect storm?

Cited by 59 publications

References 70 publications

“Are you safe to talk?”: Perspectives of Service Providers on Experiences of Domestic Violence During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“Are you safe to talk?”: Perspectives of Service Providers on Experiences of Domestic Violence During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Public Sentiment and Discourse on Domestic Violence During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia: Analysis of Social Media Posts

Optimal Lockdown Management using Short Term COVID-19 Prediction Model

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