The Revelstoke Women’s Shelter Society has released a magazine to increase understanding around the confusing nature of abuse.
“While not everyone utilizes our services, everyone is vulnerable to abuse,” magazine editor and shelter worker Emily Kemp said. “We’re hoping that in making knowledge more widespread, we can give people the tools to recognize and deal with it.”
Uplift Magazine: Healthy Relationships Revelstoke is a pilot project and the first edition features renowned Los Angeles-based psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula on the epidemic of narcissism.
The world is waking up to narcissistic abuse so much so that it even has its own day. June 1 is World Narcissistic Abuse Awareness Day, which began in 2016. There are many channels on YouTube dedicated to raising awareness.
The magazine also chats to the Revelstoke’s Victim Services team and includes insights from women who have stayed at the shelter.
The magazine aims to reduce self-flagellation for those who have fallen in love or otherwise become tied to someone abusive. It does this through detailing abusive tactics and potential underlying mental health issues that lead people to abuse.
Uplift Magazine is part of the restart for the women’s shelter since the pandemic lockdown. They have looked at how to deal if there is a second wave and changes to operations includes staggering meal times for clients, allocating private bathrooms, and limiting the number of people gathering in the common room at one time.
While the pandemic brought a slower pace of life for Revelstoke, abuse is something that flourishes in silence.
“People seemed to not have the same everyday pressures,” Revelstoke Women’s Shelter Society executive director Lynn Loeppky said about the lockdown. “But abuse is often hidden and like the hospitals, people may have been less likely to reach out due to fear of the virus or they were in an environment with more surveillance.”
Stephanie Melnyk, program coordinator for Revelstoke’s Victim Services, also noticed the quiet change. “I imagine it is happening, I’m not getting reports to Victim Services at the same rate as I’ve seen in the past,” she said. “There have been a couple of referrals, but not the same level as we would normally see at this time of year.”
Melnyk attributes this reduction partly to the departure of the seasonal population and lack of season-ending parties, which she says increases assaults at the bars, sexualized assaults at parties, robberies, theft and vandalism.
“All that bad behaviour typically happens at the end of the ski season and most of that disappeared,” she said. “It just never happened.”
What did increase during the lockdown, as reported by the Mountaineer, were overdose deaths in the province. Overdose deaths were consistently around 70 to 80 for the past year but jumped by 37 in March to 113. April recorded 118 deaths and May, 170. May is the highest month in the opioid crisis, which peaked in 2018. Majority of deaths are male.
In a top 15 list, the B.C. Coroners Service listed Revelstoke as an area with one of the highest rates of overdose deaths in the province (compared to its population) with nine deaths between 2018 and 2019. This makes it nearly on par with Vancouver. Arrow Lakes, the area around Nakusp, also made the list. It does not go into detail on the number of deaths recently though.
When combined with substance use and addiction, domestic violence can quickly escalate. When someone is under the influence, they are likely to lose control of their inhibitions and this increases the chances of abusive behaviour.
Abuse is often misunderstood, which is why the magazine has been released.
“We want people to see that abuse is multi-faceted,” Kemp said.
Copies of the magazine will be distributed around town where possible and online.
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