Interval House prepare hampers; look to new year with hopes of funding for counsellor

“There seems to be more addictions, more severe violence that women are coming out of,” she said noting prior to that, there was violence but less “intense.”

According to the 2022-23 BIH annual report, they supported 61 women and 66 children at the house. They also helped 1,386 other women through the crisis line and “4,277 other calls to the shelter.”

Longer stays

According to Jo-Ann Dusel, executive director of Provincial Association of Transitional Housing and Services of Saskatchewan (PATHS), during the pandemic, the phones went “eerily quiet” as people didn’t want to leave their homes for fear of the COVID virus. Now, however, they’re calling and it’s created an influx. Another issue is affordable housing so, instead of staying at BIH and other safe havens for six weeks, often they are staying on longer.

“Shelters are experiencing very high volumes of individuals seeking help and safety, so a lot of people are finding that they’re calling wanting to leave an abusive situation, but there’s no spaces available for them.”

The pandemic created a difficult situation that often led to substance abuse due to increased financial stress following job loss caused by the shutdowns. As a result, Kovalsky said the way they do intake has also changed as their team must do more assessments based on addictions than they used to do prior to COVID.

“Because we aren’t medically trained to deal with even detoxing, so people would be referred to detox prior to coming in here,” she said.

According to Key Statistics for PATHS Member Agencies reference, in Saskatchewan, 6,600 incidence of intimate partner violence (IPV) were reported to the police which Dusel said is the “highest per capita rate among the provinces.”

The reference listed Saskatchewan as having 724 per 100,000 IPV victims when compared to the national rate of 344 per 100,000.

“What we see in rural and remote areas across Canada, is that it’s consistently in those areas,” Dusel added, noting that while North Battleford is a small city, it would still most likely fit into the definition of rural under Statistics Canada.

“We would consider the service area around the Battlefords to be rural so, a lot of those people attending Battlefords Interval House would be from rural areas,” she said.

Christmas wish

Looking to the new year, Kovalsky said their top goal is to get a qualified counsellor on the team. BIH had pandemic funding from the federal government that afforded them the ability to have a dedicated member on staff who could offer the much-needed service.

“She was able to meet with people immediately at intake and together determine whether they want ongoing counselling down the road, now, referrals outwards so, it was somebody to connect with,” she said.

“That probably has been our biggest loss since our… grant dollars have been exhausted now.”

As for the hampers, they’ll start working on them after Remembrance Day and sending them out two weeks before the holidays.

“It warms our heart[s] to actually help the people with the Christmas hampers because we’re not funded to do anything after somebody discharges,” said Kovalsky.

“It’s hard to help people stay on their feet when they leave our place if we’re not funded to do that, so it’s nice to be able to get a hold of them and give them back something.”

If you are experiencing Intimate Partner Violence, call 306-445-2742 or text 306-441-0847.

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On X/Twitter: @jls194864

by Julia Lovett-Squires

Interval House prepare hampers; look to new year with hopes of funding for counsellor

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