Men, community members play a role in preventing intimate partner violence, experts say

WARNING: This story contains discussion of intimate partner violence and suicide.

Offering resources before domestic disputes escalate into intimate partner violence (IPV) is key, two experts say in wake of the deaths of four family members in Harrow, Ont., that police have linked to IPV.

Joyce Zuk is executive director of Family Services Windsor-Essex, which has two programs to help people who identify as male with their anger.

"Fundamental to the programming is talking about the fact that when we're looking to resolve conflicts, violence is never the answer," Zuk said.  

While one of the programs is court mandated, the other is voluntary and does what Zuk calls the "upstream" work of preventing violence. 

"We talk about the fact that anger is something that is normal … But what we want to help the participants in the group to understand is the difference between when we're having feelings of anger and then the difference when we act upon those feelings and ... translate into violence," Zuk told Windsor Morning host Amy Dodge. 

"We look at developing coping strategies and we explore some of the reasons why people may gravitate to violence."

Zuk said the program is rooted in reaching out to people and offering them support proactively, "because in these situations, we know that ... people can't wait."

In the case of the Harrow family found dead in their home June 20, Carly Walsh, 41, daughter Madison, 13, and son Hunter, 8, died of gunshots wounds, Ontario Provincial Police said. Steve, the children's father, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

Windsor police recently arrested six people with outstanding warrants related to intimate partner violence. 

The Windsor police force also recently launched the IPV Early Intervention and Prevention Program, where police share contact information of domestic violence complainants, with their consent, with Family Services. Family service workers in turn reach out to complainants with resources, in hopes of preventing the situation from escalating.

Staff Sgt. Richard Sieberer with the Windsor Police Service's special victims unit said the program connecting people with the resources Family Services provides came in response to what he saw daily on the job. 

"Every day I come in, and I read these reports and I notice the same names that are coming up as both victims and offenders," Sieberer said. 

"First it starts as a verbal argument, then … maybe escalates a little bit, becomes another verbal argument, maybe even a third verbal argument. And then it becomes something where someone gets violent, and that's when charges [are] laid.