The day care at the crisis center can save more women – NRK Buskerud – Local news, TV and radio

– I did not know about this possibility. I thought you had to live in the crisis center and have broken out of a relationship to get help.

Anita believes that her time as a day laborer was her salvation. Three times she went back to her boyfriend before it was completely over.

She thinks it is sad that the help service is so little known. No one in the public welfare system mentioned the offer to her. She found out about it herself through the Norwegian Women’s Sanitary Association.

– I am lucky to be out of it, but many people need help. They need to know that those of us who have received help are talking about it, and that more is being said about the day care service.

She believes it is important that victims of violence get help right away when they first dare to say something.

– We see this in all partner murders. These are notified partner murders. We must increase knowledge about what violence is. Because there is so much more than physical kicks and punches.

– Needs a national campaign

– We know that shelters have prevented murder and will continue to do so in the future, and the day care is an important part of that, says general manager Ane Fossum of the Shelter Secretariat.

The crisis center secretariat is an independent umbrella organization for crisis centers in Norway.

– The dark figures are large. And when we know that violence in close relationships costs society NOK 90 billion a year, we should take the advice to create a national campaign about the day services for the shelters.

The proposal has now been incorporated into the government’s escalation plan against violence and abuse against children and violence in close relationships for the period 2024–28. The proposal will be considered in the Storting on 7 May.

The plan contains over 100 measures that will uncover more cases, prevent and protect better.

according to acting department director Agnete Kjerschow i The Directorate for Children, Youth and Families has not yet planned a national information campaign.

– Various forms of communication around the offer are being worked on, and national campaigns are assessed in the same way as other ways of creating attention.

– Small price to pay

The number of children and adults living in shelters has been between 2,000 and 3,000 every year since 1992.

In 2022, the number of daily visits was 11,000 and that could perhaps multiply if more people knew about it, believes Ane Fossum in the Crisis Center Secretariat.

– Violence in close relationships and violence against women is one of the greatest challenges of our time and a major societal problem. That is why we need preventive measures such as the day care.

The crisis center secretariat is also responsible for the national VO line. A free telephone and online chat service for victims of violence and abuse. It has had a steady increase since the start in 2019.

It is precisely via this help service that many people find out about the day services at their crisis centre.

– Must get help before the violence escalates

It is the municipalities that, through the Crisis Center Act, are responsible for providing crisis center services, alone or together with other municipalities.

There are over 40 crisis centers in Norway, but you do not have to spend the night or live there to get help.

– The housing offer applies to those who need protection or are so afraid of being killed or exposed to violence that they have to live here, but you get the same offer as a day worker, says Fossum.

I think many more people could get help

In Drammen, the day service has had between 300 and 350 users each year for the past three years, says department manager Ingunn Eidset Åker.

She says that the crisis centers have become professional competence centers on violence in close relationships.

– It’s about prevention by getting in early so the violence doesn’t escalate, and preventing people who live in violence from staying in the conditions, and that they get the help they need, until they stand on their own two feet, says Eidset Åker.

She believes that far more people would get help if it became known that the day service is really about a free call service that you do not need a referral to.

– It is a high threshold for many because of the name «shelter»I think.

Anita: – Could have ended completely differently for me

So far in 2024, several shelters are reporting an increased intake. The number of murders and partner murders already exceeds last year.

For Anita, it hurts to read about the brutal reality.

– I got help and have moved on. But I often think that it could have ended completely differently for me.

She herself reported the ex-boyfriend for violence and harassment, but the case was dropped by the police.

Now the relationship is several years back in time, and Anita is coming forward to show others that there is hope.

– It is important that those who live in violent relationships have a voice in us who are out of it. That there are more of us who dare to tell about our experiences and what it is like to be subjected to violence.

As a day worker at the crisis centre, she received help to sort out her thoughts and feelings.

Through many meetings with the professionals while she was a day worker, it slowly dawned on her that the relationship she lived in was destructive with a lot of psychological violence.

She recognizes that many people downplay the violence they are subjected to and take responsibility for the fact that it has become this way.

– People who have no knowledge of what violence is and how violent relationships affect them can ask why you don’t just leave. But it is much easier to answer why you stay.