Family violence and COVID19

According to WHO, violence against women tend to increase during any type of emergency, such as the COVID19 outbreak, impacting not just women but also children and their families health . Although data on family violence during crisis is scarce, existing reports from China, UK and USA already suggest an increase of intimate partner violence. As social distancing measures are taken and people forced or encourage to stay at home, we could expect that the increase of tension at many homes will unfortunately end up in new cases of family violence or exacerbations of existing ones. Such context of an overloaded health system facing the crisis may imply in extra challenges for victims to seek help. This article aims to summarize the existing evidence regarding family violence during crisis and the resources available that can help to mitigate the impact of violence.