BullShare Episode 6: How Survivors of Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Violence, and Their Children, are Impacted by COVID-19

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*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

DISCLAIMER: The information in this podcast episode “episode” is provided for general informational purposes only and may not reflect the current law in your jurisdiction. By listening to our episode, you understand that there is no attorney client relationship between you and the University at Buffalo School of Law’s Clinical Legal Education attorneys and podcast publisher. No information contained in this episode should be construed as legal advice from University at Buffalo School of Law’s Clinical Legal Education and/or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter. No listener of this episode should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information included in, or accessible through, this episode without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer licensed in the recipient’s state, country or other appropriate licensing jurisdiction.

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