COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Some of the measures intended to help stop the spread of COVID-19 are making difficult times even more challenging for victims of domestic violence. Stay-at-home orders and social-distancing recommendations are believed to be linked to an increase in domestic-violence incidents, and also are making it more difficult for survivors to seek help.

Myriam Shaw Ojeda, fellow of policy and innovation at the Ohio Pharmacists Association, said that's why they are partnering with the Ohio Domestic Violence Network to raise awareness on the role pharmacies can play in increasing safety for domestic-violence victims.

"We are probably one of the most accessible health care providers to all of our patients at this time, and therefore it was a very good opportunity to combine forces with ODVN and try and help patients who are suffering at the moment," Shaw Ojeda said.

The Ohio Pharmacists Care about Domestic Violence Initiative is providing pharmacies with educational resources for domestic-violence victims during the pandemic, including flyers that can be dropped in medication bags with information on accessing housing, food, medical care and medications.

Shaw Ojeda said she's hopeful the initiative will open the door for patients to talk to their health care providers about safety. She said pharmacists know their patients and want them to have better outcomes.

"When someone is struggling with an unsafe environment at home, it does affect their health, it does affect other parts of their life," she said. "And so, as pharmacists we want to make sure that our patients have an overall healthy outlook, not just in relation to their medication."

Shaw Ojeda noted that about 100 Ohio pharmacies already have signed onto the effort, and they are conducting a massive outreach to get even more on board.



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An initiative at one Ohio nonprofit is taking on the topic of men and sexual violence.

There is a false notion men are not experiencing sexual violence or are only perpetrators of it, but a 2015 study indicated nearly one quarter of men experience sexual violence in their lifetime. At the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, the "Engaging Men" initiative is trying to bring men into the conversation.

Jayvon Howard, Engaging Men coordinator for the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, hosts a monthly Instagram live event he calls "Q and A with Jay," the second Wednesday of every month at noon. He said breaking through preexisting beliefs is a big part of the project.

"This issue of sexual violence, especially around male survivorship and male victimization, we don't culturally think that it's real, that it's something that ever happens, and men feel that for themselves as well, or about other men," Howard explained.

Howard emphasized the event offers a safe space for both men and women to learn about resources for survivors and anti-violence strategies. Most questions come from women, and he is hoping to get more men involved.

"It helps kind of uplift and change the narrative a bit that 'OK, maybe this space is for me to be a part of, maybe I can ask questions, maybe it's OK for me to explore this topic safely,' " Howard pointed out.

A new Minnesota law has gone into effect this week involving a program that keeps address information confidential for victims of domestic abuse.

Minnesota's Safe at Home initiative assigns participants a post office box to use as their legal address, to help as they escape an abusive situation or a stalker. It also details how state and local agencies have to respond to data requests without disclosing the person's location. Among the changes is clarification of the requirement that a landlord cannot display a person's name who's in the Safe at Home program.

Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, DFL-Roseville, a main sponsor of the bill, said no major issues prompted the updates, but they're still important.

"As technology changes, too," she said, "that we're sort of making sure that what is in statute matches with the reality of what it's like to live as someone who lives in fear for their safety."

Another change expands the definition of "real property records" that are prohibited from disclosure. Becker-Finn said they had long pushed for these updates, but general political gridlock proved to be an obstacle.

In broader efforts to help abuse and assault victims, Becker-Finn said she would like to see agencies be more responsive and sensitive to those reporting an incident. In many communities, she said, the way survivors are treated can make it harder for them to even file a report.

"I think we do have a ways to go when it comes to that side of things and actually holding people accountable," she said.

Advocacy groups have said Minnesota also must take steps such as committing to testing its backlog of rape kits to better support victims. Recent reforms largely addressed future kits.

Last year, the state did remove a statute of limitations on reporting sexual assault, with the goal of giving survivors more time to decide when to pursue charges.

New work is being done in Ohio to help free people who are caught in the complex web of domestic violence, addiction and mental health.

Cheryl Stahl, who is heading the Ohio Domestic Violence Network's new Substance Use Mental Health Project, said most survivors who seek services are facing multiple traumas and concerns.

"You're working with women who - say, from childhood - have had sexual-abuse experiences and then date people who are abusive," she said "Those people perhaps are using drugs. They get introduced to drugs; they may have mental-health concerns that are being masked by the trauma."

Research indicates that between 47% and 90% of women who seek substance-use disorder treatment say they've experienced domestic violence. Stahl said the project is teaching advocates at shelters about addiction and mental health, and how they can better assist people who struggle with these challenges.

Stahl said domestic-violence survivors can be reluctant to leave because of mental-health and substance-use coercion, when an abuser uses tactics to undermine their sanity and sobriety.

"The abusers will often use substance use particularly as a way of threatening to take custody of children," she said. "You may have the abuser as the person who is providing the drugs and sort of in control of when they get them and when they don't."

Stahl said the training will teach shelter staff how to talk about addiction in ways that encourage change and can connect survivors with peer-support services, and provide help for people who are actively using but not ready to enter treatment.

"Survivors aren't going to shelter necessarily to get off of drugs, that's not what they're seeking that service for," she said. "So, introducing some harm-reduction strategies - safety planning with people on how to hopefully prevent overdose."

Stahl said some of the work will focus on identifying brain injury as it pertains to substance use and mental health. The three-year project is starting in seven counties and Stahl said she hopes to expand it to 30 shelters.