A number of “service deserts” present on Quebec territory impede the accessibility of the therapies offered to perpetrators of conjugal violence. Sectors of Montreal, Montérégie and Nord-du-Québec, among others, have no organization on their territory that helps men with violent behavior in a marital and family context, even if their population presents significant risk. Accessibility that is also undermined in terms of language, due to the low number of organizations offering services in English or in a language other than French.
In Quebec, some thirty organizations help men who behave violently in a marital and family context. “If I make a comparison, there are a hundred shelters [pour soutenir les victimes de violence conjugale et familiale]. The ratios are not at all the same,” points out Geneviève Landry, president of À coeur d’homme, the association that brings together the vast majority of organizations serving this male clientele.
The result is a geographic disparity in the services offered, deplores the worker. For example, no organization offers therapy to perpetrators of domestic violence in the West Island of Montreal. Ditto for Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Verdun, LaSalle or even for Montreal North. “Someone who lives in Verdun and who has to go to the Spousal Assistance Service (SAC) [dans Ahuntsic]it’s quite a journey by public transit,” notes Geneviève Landry, who is also the head of the organization Entraide pour hommes located in Longueuil and Beloeil.
The intervener also deplores the presence of a desert of services in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Montérégie. There is a population of about 100,000 with high risk factors. “There are more probation files in domestic violence and files related to the DPJ, and these men find themselves without services,” she laments, adding that men can follow therapies in other places. other organizations present in the region by means of a bus or car journey which can be daunting and costly.
A similar phenomenon is also observed in Nord-du-Québec, where the population, again presenting significant risk factors, is not served to meet its needs. “A man in Quebec does not have the same trajectory of services depending on where he lives,” denounces Geneviève Landry.
Anglophone community
This disparity in the offer of services intended for the perpetrators of conjugal and family violence is also observed in linguistic matters. McGill University’s domestic violence clinic is the only resource in Quebec entirely intended for English-speaking clients. “We are a very small clinic operating on very small resources,” says Derrolton James, director and clinical supervisor of the Domestic Violence Clinic.
But the needs are there. Today, a man must wait about three months on the clinic’s waiting list before joining a therapy group — the method deemed most effective in treating perpetrators of domestic and family violence. “It’s a question of resources. We just have two groups and we have a maximum of ten guys per group, ”says the director, explaining that this waiting list was created during the pandemic and that the clinic, which has been offering services mainly online for three years, has not succeeded in absorbing it.
On an annual basis, the private clinic — to which McGill University provides premises, but which operates without any government subsidy — serves some sixty men, almost all of whom are referred by the legal system or by the services of youth care. These men come from a large territory, ranging from the West Island to the South Shore in the Montreal area. And for many, English is not the mother tongue, which complicates the helping relationship.
“We have to be very creative in the activities we do. We are forced to use simpler language, without being infantilizing”, explains Derrolton James, who adds that “it is one of the greatest needs to offer services in other languages [que le français et l’anglais] “.
Prevention Services
A few months ago, to meet the demand, the organization Option in Montreal began to offer, in addition to its usual services in French, individual therapies in English. “We saw that there were needs, people were calling us,” says Lucie Saint-Pierre, General Manager of Option.
But as elsewhere, the organizations come up against the shortage of manpower and the difficulty of recruiting workers who want to work in a helping relationship with perpetrators of conjugal and family violence. The Montreal organization Harmonie conjugale (formerly Pro-Gam) had to stop offering services in English and Spanish a few years ago after the departure of workers who mastered these two languages. “It would be great if we could [à nouveau] offer services in English, Spanish, and possibly in other languages, such as Arabic,” says Robert Cazelais, general manager of Harmonie conjugale.
Beyond therapies, prevention services should be offered in a variety of languages, suggests Derrolton James. “The challenge with the service we offer is that it’s a completely reactive service,” he points out. We intervene when there is a severity in the violence that requires the intervention of the police or youth protection services. To more effectively tackle the phenomenon of conjugal and family violence, ”we must be proactive [directement dans les communautés]rather than reactive,” he points out.
Need help ? If you are a victim of domestic violence, you can call the SOS violence conjugale hotline at 1 800 363-9010. To contact the À c associationœman, dial 1 877 660-7799.