Each month brings an average of 15 new cases to deal with, while there
are on average seven cases carried over from the previous month. In relation
to repeat cases to the shelter, there is an average of just under four cases
each month where women would have to come to the refuge on a previous
occasion seeking protection. Nearly 80 per cent of the women coming into
the shelter were accompanied by their children.

The majority of women who come to Aoibhneas stay on average no more
than four weeks. However, one-fifth of women who come to the refuge stay
over four weeks;

• 12.5 per cent stay form four to thirteen weeks;
• 6.7 per cent stay between thirteen and twenty-six weeks;
• 1.2 per cent stay longer than 26 weeks.

Of course women have different needs, circumstances and different rates of
recovery. But longer stays also increasingly represent the huge problem women encounter in finding alternative affordable accommodation.

A third of women coming to the refuge during the survey period had children
in the very young and vulnerable years of 0-4, while the vast majority of children
in the formative period of 5-9 years of age. The concentration of children in these
younger age ranges exposed to Domestic Violence, when children are very
sensitive and impressionable should be noted as both very young children and
slightly older children will experience distress and a range of troubling reaction
to Violence in the Home. They require great care and attention in the short-term
from the special childcare workers that Aoibhneas already provides. But statutory
service providers such as schools, social services and community health care
providers should be alert to the range of long-term needs, which such children have.

Women most commonly reported that one or a combination of the following
three elements had brought them to the refuge.

• Latest in a serious of violent incidents
• Mental/emotional abuse
• Threatening behaviour

Their children's safety was also a point of concern.

Just less than 70 per cent of women had disclosed details of the violence to
which they were subject. But women reported finding disclosure about violence
difficult, whether they spoke to the family, professional or both. On the other hand,
when they disclose, they frequently find inadequate responses to their plight and
so cease to discuss it.

Just less than 60 per cent of the respondents had spoken to professionals about
their plight. Some respondents had spoken about difficulties for an extended period
of time and one woman said that she had been speaking to a social worker for a
period of three years about the violence she was experiencing. And no matter
whom they had spoken with, all the respondents were forced to take the ultimate
action of leaving their homes to escape the violence. When asked what they
would have wanted most to enable them to deal with their experiences, the majority
of women responded that they had most needed to be believed and listened to
about what was happening to them. Three replied that they most needed
counselling.