OTTAWA, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Canada is witnessing a significant spike in cases of family violence since the economic downturn and the level of abuse has deteriorated, social service organizations said.

    According to the Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter, calls to the agency's 24-hour family violence help line in mid-March to Easter jumped 200 percent compared with the same period last year. The previous 30-day period saw a 300 percent rise from the same time in 2008.

    The complexity and severity of what the women victims are demonstrating are also much more severe than what has been seen in a long time, Lisa Falkowsky, executive director of the agency told Canadian Press on Wednesday.

    She blamed the economic recession for the rise in domestic abuse.

    "In all of our programs where we're seeing new people come in, we're finding that they are talking more about the economic impact that has caused them to come forward," she said.

    A similar situation has been found in other places. Mary Wells, executive director of Catholic Family Services for Durham Region east of Toronto, said referrals for domestic violence were up 24 percent in the last three months of 2008.

    Requests for family and individual counseling have also risen, she said. Two programs for couples aimed at helping families weather the economic downturn are full and now have waiting lists.

    The level of violence also seems greater than in recent years, Wells said.

    Donna Harris, coordinator for the Northumberland Domestic Abuse Monitoring Committee, said financial uncertainty can set off a complex web of emotions, leading to violence in the family.

    "We know that abuse is about power and control, and that very frequently during recession times, we have less power and less control," she said.

    Losing one's job, with little prospect of one to replace it, can lead to feeling embarrassed, degraded and ashamed about not being able to support the family, according to Wells.

    "And those kind of emotions ricochet into the relationships," she said. "And if there are many fracture lines in the relationship, they can widen, sort of like an earthquake."

    The experts are advising families to call crisis lines or contact social service organizations for support if relationships are escalating into violence.