Domestic violence cases in Taipei increased to 17,000 last year, a Taipei City councilor said, adding that the city government seemed to respond to reported cases only passively.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Yang Chih-tou (楊植斗) said that increased life stress and the COVID-19 pandemic caused domestic violence to worsen across the nation.
There were 94,086 reported cases of domestic violence nationwide in 2017, increasing to 118,463 in 2021. The number in Taipei reached a record high of 17,128 that year, he said.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Although reported domestic violence cases in Taipei decreased slightly to 16,924 last year, the number of cases involving children or adolescents increased by 1,528, and cases involving elderly people increased by 2,535, showing that domestic violence toward the two age groups is worsening, Yand said.
However, the Taipei Department of Social Welfare seemed to have only responded passively when the cases were reported, he said, adding that he hopes it can do more to provide guidance and counseling to help families address the problem and prevent further incidents.
In response, the department said that an analysis of the types of domestic violence cases showed an increase in the number of cases involving elderly people, attributing those cases to the rapid increase of Taipei’s elderly population, dementia among senior people and the increased burden on caregivers.
The department said it continues to work with civic groups to promote domestic violence prevention and expand the channels for reporting cases and the mechanisms for people to receive community-level care.
The department is to include pharmacies into the domestic violence notification network and build neighborhood support networks, it said.
Moreover, the department would also use a preliminary screening index to identify families with a high caregiver burden, and introduce support services and resources to help them alleviate the burden of taking care of senior family members, it said.
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