For most Athenians, shelter in place orders are a manageable inconvenience — the price we pay to keep ourselves, our loved ones, and our community safe from COVID-19. Experts say that social distancing measures, like those enacted early on by Athens-Clarke County officials, are working.
For many, home is the safest place to be; however, this is far from a universal truth. For Athens’ most endangered and vulnerable residents, home can be anything but safe.
“One of the biggest tools in the abuser’s toolbox”
Joan Prittie is the executive director of Project Safe, an Athens nonprofit that works to end domestic violence and support those affected by it.
“Isolation is one of the biggest tools in the abuser’s toolbox,” Prittie said. “When people are isolated, not just by their abuser, but by other circumstances, this can be very difficult for someone who is experiencing abuse.”
Prittie said that she has no doubt that abusers are exploiting the social distancing rules to keep their victims under control, preying on fears that law enforcement, judicial processes and shelters are not operating normally. She said that’s not the case, however.
“Yes, many services are scaled back. Courts have reduced their hours, but they have not reduced access to temporary protective orders and stalking orders. We can still get that,” Prittie said. “Many businesses are closed, but we are not.”
Even with additional precautions to keep its clients and staff safe, Project Safe continues to provide all of its services. Those who wish to donate cleaning products, household items and over-the-counter medicines can do so Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Project Safe's Physical Therapy Entrance: 850 King Avenue, Athens GA 30606.
“Sitting in that hotbed of abuse”
With local schools closed to in-person instruction, the challenges of identifying and reporting child abuse are growing, said Sally Kimel-Sheppard, executive director of The Cottage, a nonprofit sexual assault and children’s advocacy center.
“Here in Clarke County, the majority of ways that we would get reports of child abuse would be from teachers,” Sheppard said. “Teachers are not seeing kids right now. Kids are stuck at home, and the primary person who is going to abuse a kid will be someone they’re in contact with intimately. . . so they are sitting in that hotbed of abuse right now.”
Kimel-Sheppard said that puts more responsibility on all adults to report suspected child abuse.
“Keep tabs on kids any way that you can,” she said. “Please don’t be afraid to make a report to DFCS or law enforcement if there is a suspicion of abuse.”
“An enormous problem”
Child abuse isn’t the only threat facing kids in the COVID-19 era. Shae Post, executive director of the Athens Area Homeless Shelter (AAHS) said that more than 600 Clarke County public school students have been identified as homeless this academic year.
“It’s an enormous problem here in Athens-Clarke County,” Post said.
Post’s nonprofit serves children and adults, and continues to provide shelter for homeless Athenians, although under very different circumstances.
“We’re still there every day. It’s staffed every day,” Post said. “We have policies in place that any time our staff interacts with our residents, everybody is wearing a mask, people are wearing gloves.”
The group’s emergency shelter, however, was not going to be able to function while observing social distancing rules, Post said. While each family at the emergency shelter has a private room and bathroom, other areas were common spaces. That brought AAHS leaders to a difficult decision.
“We realized pretty quickly that we weren’t going to be able to enforce social distancing,” she said. “We made the really, really tough decision to close it down and we moved those families into a hotel.
Another emergency shelter, Bigger Vision of Athens, also faced difficult decisions with social distancing mandates. Because overnight stays are no longer possible, the shelter continues to provide showers, laundry facilities and meals.
“We have a wonderful group of volunteers who put together a meal every night,” said Debra Shaw Hess, President of Bigger Vision’s Board of Directors. “We’ve been handing out blankets, we’ve been handing out clothing as necessary.”
“All of our responsibilities are here under one roof, screaming and wanting a snack”
Homeless residents and survivors of abuse aren’t the only populations struggling with the new normal of COVID-19. For people struggling with addiction, or in recovery, the feelings of anxiety and isolation caused by quarantine and social distancing can closely mimic those of addiction.
“All of those things can be similar to feelings that an individual might have been feeling in active addiction,” said Jada Harrison, Director of Addictive Diseases for Advantage Behavioral Health Systems.Advantage is a community service board that provides residential and outpatient treatment for Athens-Clarke County and nine other counties in the area.
Harrison points to two major concerns for those in recovery — accountability and connection.
“When you have barriers of not being able to go AA meetings in person, or you don’t have internet, or you don’t have access to a device that allows you to participate in a Zoom meeting, then you can feel really disconnected,” Harrison said. “When you’re not seeing your support person, when you’re not being around your recovery community, your accountability can be affected.”
Compounding the problem for many in recovery is the fact that with schools and daycares closed, parents are now responsible for educating and entertaining their children 24 hours a day. That increased responsibility can present a huge challenge for parents in recovery.
“The biggest struggle that we had while we were using is that we would want to dip out on reality, to dip out on responsibilities and dip out on life," said Laura McCoy, Peer Outreach Coordinator for People Living in Recovery. "We’re clean now, we can’t do that, and all of our responsibilities are right here under one roof, screaming and wanting a snack.”
Add increased parental responsibilities to the recovery process, and growing financial stress, and the result can be overwhelming.
“A lot of people that have addiction problems have mental health problems, and so you have people obsessing over the fear of what’s going to happen,” McCoy said. “It’s a bunch of the unknown, and I think anxiety and stuff just when you’re cooped up in one spot, it gets worse.”
Harrison’s department at Advantage Behavioral Health has had to make significant changes to how it operates in order to continue to serve its clients: moving from in-person care to tele-medicine, limiting new admissions and restricting travel to outside meetings. While necessary to protect provider and patient health, these precautions have made it more difficult for people living with addiction to receive treatment.
McCoy, who also works directly with those in recovery, worries about the lack of in-person interaction.
“When they walk in the room and their presence is just not how it always is, I can ask them, ‘Are you okay?’ If we’re over the phone, I might not necessarily hear that in their voice, and that could be the day that something needed to be heard, and it gets missed, and people go and get high,” McCoy said.
Harrison also worries about the toll the pandemic is taking on the care providers and counselors she works with.
“There’s a lot of powerlessness and not knowing how long this is going to last, not really knowing the outcome,” she said. “And so, you’re managing those feelings and thoughts for yourself as well as trying to help others learn ways to manage that, as well.”
Both Harrison and McCoy emphasized the availability of alternative resources, such as the NAMI HelpLine, the CARES Warm Line, as well as online resources from local community recovery organizations and community service boards. Narcotics Anonymous and Alcholics Anonymous also have regular Zoom meetings.
