Symposia
System Stakeholder Issues
Melanie D. Hetzel-Riggin, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Penn State Behrend
Erie, Pennsylvania
Best practices suggest that coordinated community response (CCR) teams are important community tools to focus on reforms in law enforcement, prosecution, probation, and victim services responses to domestic violence (Shepard & Pence, 1999). These multi-stakeholder efforts allow for cross-discipline input in creating local approaches to addressing domestic violence (Allen, 2005; Greeson & Campbell, 2013). During the coronavirus pandemic, these CCRs were challenged; rates of domestic violence skyrocketed during the height of the pandemic (Piquero et al., 2021). Yet little is known of how the members of these CCRs faired themselves during the pandemic—how did these providers fair balancing the heightened needs and challenging protocols of service provision while navigating their own personal responses to the pandemic?
Forty-seven members of the Rural Domestic Violence Task Force who completed the survey during September 2020. Mean age was 43 (SD = 13.0), and respondents had been in the field anywhere from 1 to 40+ years. Respondents represented law enforcement, domestic violence advocates, mental health providers, child protective services, school personnel, and health care providers. Respondents answered quantitative questions about how the pandemic was impacting their levels of fatigue, connections with others, mental health outcomes, isolation, productivity, and job engagement. They also provided qualitative data on how the pandemic had affected their ability to do their job, how it has affected specific aspects of the job (transportation, communication, etc.), unexpected benefits, and relationships with others on the task force.
The respondents reported that the pandemic had a mild negative impact on their level of burnout, internet fatigue, social and professional connections, feelings of isolation, and fear/anxiety (means = -.62 to -.98). Because of the rural nature of the coalition, internet connectivity was a challenge for both service provision and connection with other coalition members when needed. Qualitative responses noted that members of the Task Force struggled to connect with survivors. Similarly, Task Force members reported increased levels of anxiety, fear, and burnout. Specific struggles included lack of physical resources to serve clients from home, the strain of constantly changing quarantine and safety rules and policy, social isolation, and mental and physical exhaustion. The paper will address how CCRs can be improved and be more supportive of their members based on the data.