*Warning* This Podcast may contain subject matters that may be triggering or difficult to hear. Please note that this episode was recorded in November 2020.
This podcast explores how survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (“IPV”) and Domestic Violence (“DV”), and their children, notably, have been and continue to be impacted by pandemic, and how their safety has been increasingly compromised as a result of social distancing and isolation necessitated by COVID-19. We explore how prior to the pandemic, the CDC had reported that at least 1 in 7 children had experienced child abuse and/or neglect, while nearly 1,770 children died of abuse and neglect in the U.S., and how those numbers have likely increased significantly throughout the pandemic thus far, and may continue to increase if attention is not brought to the issue. Our guests help us to better understand the impact child abuse and neglect can have on a child’s health and wellbeing into adulthood, and how exposure to violence has been proven to increase a child’s future risk of injury, violence, victimization, substance abuse, delayed brain development, lower educational attainment, and limited employment. Families being forced to remain in close quarters for extreme amounts of time has proven socially, financially and psychologically stressful, to adults and children, and this stress has seeped into familial relationships, creating a second pandemic of dangerous and increasingly frequent family violence. Our guests explain how survivors’ ability to access meaningful help is limited, as is a child’s ability to do so, given that schools are largely closed, and teachers and school counselors cannot easily access them. Our guests suggest ways in which we, as a community, can identify survivors and/or children who may need help and provide meaningful and effective resources to them.
Guests:
Hon. Mary G. Carney – Erie County Family Court Judge, Member of the New York State Bar Association, Women Lawyers of Western New York and the Womens Bar Association of Western New York
Cameron Balon – Training specialist at Crisis Services Erie County and manager of Volunteer Advocates at Crisis Services
Hosts:
Peter Farrugia, JD Candidate at University at Buffalo School of Law, and Health Law & Policy and Healthcare Management MBA Candidate
Lindsay Lougen, JD Candidate at University at Buffalo School of Law with a Concentration in Family Law Studies
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