Wimmera family violence agencies expect an increase in reports within two weeks

Horsham agencies such as Grampians Community Health and Uniting Wimmera are preparing for the worst as other countries see an exponential increase in domestic abuse.

Community health chief executive Greg Little said overseas trends would inevitably follow in Australia.

"People are stressed. It's a dangerous time for family violence," he said.

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"I believe this pandemic will be similar to other natural disasters, like the Black Saturday bushfires, where we see an increase in family violence. Unfortunately it is just likely to occur."

Mr Little said it was too early to see a quantifiable increase in domestic violence cases, but warned it was just a matter of time.

"We're still a little while away from seeing a peak in domestic violence cases," he said. "We are seeing a slight elevation in calls, but I think we are probably a week or two from that peak.

"Generally the holidays, such as Easter and Christmas, are a time where family violence reporting drops; unfortunately, it is after the holidays where we see a jump in cases."

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He said the issue was exacerbated when agencies such as Grampians Community Health were forced to close their office doors to the public.

"It is difficult to service an area when the doors are closed - a lot of our offices are closed and our staff are at home, but we are open to the community," he said.

"Domestic violence is difficult to report when people are at home 24 hours a day; we are acutely aware of this issue.

"As always, the first step is to always call the police; however, we are still open, so please contact us."

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Mr Little said people could call Grampians Community Health in Horsham on 5358 7400.

Wimmera Uniting executive officer Josh Koenig said his agency had prepared as best as it could.

"We expect things to get a lot worse," he said.

"It has been proven in other countries - we have seen a spike in family violence cases as people go into lockdown.

"Unfortunately, we haven't seen an increase in resources or funding, so we've scaled back on our 'nice to do' activities to focus our resources on family and one-to-one counselling. Our workers have cleared their schedules and are on standby."

Mr Koenig said people could call Uniting Wimmera on 5362 4000.