Minister of Human Services & Social Security Priya Manickchand has said that while alcohol plays a role in domestic violence it must not be seen as an excuse to perpetrate violence.
The minister told Stabroek News that many of the persons who seek the ministry’s help have indicated that their spouses imbibe alcohol.
“But I don’t consider alcohol an excuse for abuse. Voluntary intoxication is never a reason,” the minister told this newspaper when contacted recently on the issue.
“I think it contributes to whatever ills is happening in a person’s mind and should not be seen as an excuse,” the minister stressed.
Last week Magistrate Tejnarine Ramroop had told Stabroek News that alcohol abuse is the root cause of many of the domestic violence cases before him and he had called for the liquor licence regulations to be adhered to as there are too many rum shops in the country.
“I can tell you, 100 per cent of the domestic violence cases before me at the Albion Magistrate’s Court are related to alcohol,” the magistrate had told Stabroek News in a telephone interview from his Berbice home.
He had said it saddened his heart to hear the wives of men who abuse them say “he is a good man when he ain’t drinking but soon as he drink he does this.”
The comments made by Minister Manickchand, however, were not in response to those made by Magistrate Ramroop.
Major role
Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Probation Officer Marva Williams told Stabroek News that alcohol plays a major role in domestic violence in Guyana but she cautioned that it is not the “root cause” of the problem.
However, she noted that there are some persons who begin drinking from a tender age and they have been socialized to drink and as such they are addicted by the time they become adults and this would automatically affect any relationship they enter.
“However you look at it the use and the abuse of alcohol affects relationships,” the probation officer said.
She said many times while under the influence persons become violent but she was once again quick to add that there are a number of reasons for domestic violence such as persons growing up in a home with domestic violence.
“What I have discovered is that people who imbibe would have other emotional problems but they would use the alcohol to get some sort of strength to deal with issues. So if the person does not have good communication skills or conflict resolution skills they tend to get drunk and then talk,” Williams told Stabroek News in a recent interview.
She said some persons would be “quiet as a mouse when they are not drunk” and issues that bother them “pile up and then they go and drink one day and everything comes up and some react violently.”
Williams said too many men and women do this and over her thirteen years as a social worker she has seen a number of cases where the use of alcohol or the use of some illicit drugs resulted in domestic violence.
She noted that when someone is drunk it is not the time to attempt any discussion with them or worse yet to be involved in an argument as that is the wrong time “if he have to sleep let him sleep because once he is drunk he is not going to be rational…”
Self-esteem
Williams said she has found that a number of women are of the opinion that their spouses must hit them as it is an indication that they care for them.
“You have women who feel if I don’t get blows they are not loved… It is certain classes of people… they would have had self-esteem problems from the beginning. They feel that ‘this man owns me and when he hits me it is a kind of security.’ Some women move to the stage where they feel they deserve the beating which is a bad thing,” Williams said.
The former teacher said that when she is counselling her clients that is the first issue she establishes and once this is found to be true then she addresses it immediately.
Meanwhile, Williams said in most cases men who are addicted to alcohol only seek the ministry’s help after their spouses would have left them.
“You hardly see men coming unless the bottom falls out… They would come and say I had or I have an alcohol problem, I am getting remedial treatment right now, my wife has left me and I can’t handle it and I am really depressed.”
She said immediately she would take the focus away from the relationship and instead focus on his alcohol problem and encourage him to seek help for his addiction.
“I will say to him ‘I have an open door just come’ but one of the other things I would say ‘I am not going to promise you that our intervention is going to cause your wife to come back tomorrow or ever…’” Williams said.
Williams noted also that she would continue working with the man over a period of time once he keeps coming and after sometime would have elapsed she would make contact with the woman via the phone in an attempt to ascertain whether there is any hope of the two reuniting.
In some cases the woman would have moved on and Williams said she then works with the man in accepting this and helping him to move on too.
For her female clients Williams said it is a different approach as most of them are dependent on the man and children are involved but once there is hitting an immediate period of separation is recommended. They are referred to Help & Shelter for them to be placed in the safe home for a period.
Williams pointed out that as social workers they have been moving out of their offices more and are involved in more community work and they work with support groups such as churches and other organizations in disseminating information.
“And while we are talking we pick up cases of domestic violence like that… And sometimes when I go and do talks… by the time I come back to work people who sat there quietly, they turn up here.
Many cases come to me like that, when you go and do public education you sensitize people and they understand the services that are available,” Williams said.
She acknowledged that sometimes people don’t even know what are the services provided by the probation office and it is good to go and inform them so that they can seek help when they are in need.
