As a rise in family violence due to the coronavirus crisis is set to strain an already critically overstretched social support system, some abusers are reportedly using COVID-19 as a psychological weapon.

Key points: Social services organisations are getting reports that abusers are using the coronavirus-related threats as a form of emotional-physical abuse

Social services organisations are getting reports that abusers are using the coronavirus-related threats as a form of emotional-physical abuse Some social workers are confused about what they are allowed to do under coronavirus restrictions

Some social workers are confused about what they are allowed to do under coronavirus restrictions The chair of the Royal Commission into Family Violence is concerned that momentum to reform the sector will be halted by the crisis

Liz Thomas, the chief executive of social services organisation Wayss that helps family violence victims in Melbourne's south-east, told the ABC she had received six reports in the past week of men using the coronavirus to threaten and coerce women.

"It's horrific. It's horrendous," Ms Thomas said.

"Perpetrators have actually used COVID-19 as a form of abuse, telling their partner that they have the virus therefore they can't leave the house.

"Inviting people into the house where the woman is self-isolating, saying that the visitor has COVID-19 and he's going to infect them.

"So it's a real form of abuse we have not experienced before."

Liz Thomas, the chief executive of Wayss, is concerned about abusers threatening their partners with the coronavirus. ( Supplied: Hayley Clark )

With victims being cooped up with their abusers and homes being turned into pressure cookers due to coronavirus restrictions, frontline domestic violence workers have already seen a jump in domestic and family violence cases.

Ms Thomas said the number of requests from police for her organisation's services had increased from an average of 120 per week to 209 in the past seven days.

"People who were vulnerable are now more vulnerable than ever," she said.

"[They are] in a state of fright and a state of heightened anxiety and are having this new threat — that is frightening for us all — used against them as yet another form of emotional-physical abuse.

"This has added a whole new dimension we haven't seen before."

'It will get worse'

Former Supreme Court judge Marcia Neave is worried.

As the chair of the Royal Commission into Family Violence, Ms Neave in 2016 handed down the recommendations that saw Victoria start to lead the nation in its judicial and social response and spend $2 billion dollars on reforms.

But no one could have anticipated the social tsunami that arrived with the coronavirus, the widespread job losses and isolation, and how they would strain relationships already riven by violence and coercive behaviour.

Marcia Neave was appointed chair of the Royal Commission into Family Violence in 2015. ( Supplied )

"It will get worse, during this terrible period of time," Ms Neave said.

"I suspect that people will stay in violent relationships because it will be that they won't know what else to do."

Ms Neave spoke exclusively to the ABC to coincide with the fourth anniversary on Sunday of her report being handed down.

Although there is still some way to go until all her 227 recommendations are adopted, she is pleased with progress made so far, particularly on preventative education campaigns and the establishment of specialist courts.

But COVID-19 could undo the progress made so far.

"I am concerned that it will go on the backburner," Ms Neave said.

"And people who were in a terrible situation before may now be even in a worse situation, because if they've got violence combined with all of the all of the restrictions that are being placed on people's movements, having their children at home, etc, they will be badly affected."

We've seen this before

Predictions of a rise in family violence are based on patterns that have emerged after previous natural disasters.

Victoria's top cop battling family violence, Assistant Commissioner Dean McWhirter, said the research showed there was an initial lull as people struggled to cope with the changes around them.

But then would come a surge, he said.

Assistant Commissioner Dean McWhirter leads Victoria Police's campaign against family violence. ( Supplied: Victoria Police )

"Those pressures and behaviours that are existing in relationships will come to the fore because of financial stress, the pressure ... the coercive and controlling behaviours in the existing relationships will absolutely come to the fore," he said.

"And we would anticipate there will be a significant increase in family violence reporting and family violence crime for the foreseeable future.

"All systems are struggling and I think we will continue to struggle because we are facing something we've never seen before.

"The level and size of the crime that we're going to experience is unclear, but it is inevitable."

Ms Thomas, from Wayss, said reports out of China indicated that incidents of family violence had tripled during the pandemic there.

"It may well be that we haven't seen the extent of this peak yet," she said.

Jenna, a survivor of family violence, says coronavirus restrictions would have made the situation 'so much worse'. ( ABC News: Andrew Altree-Williams )

'I would go insane'

When Jenna* (not her real name) was heavily pregnant, she fled her violent partner for weeks at a time, sleeping in bushes, in garages, on trains — anywhere that might provide a moment of safety.

Two years on, she is free of the relationship, in secure housing, a loving mother to her son.

And now she can barely imagine what it would be like for victims of violence forced to stay behind closed doors with their abusers under the current COVID-19 restrictions.

"It's heart-breaking," she said. "It's disgusting. This makes it just so much worse.

"I honestly think at the time I would be intoxicated and ignoring it. But if I was kept inside a house [with my abuser], I would go insane."

Support agencies having to adapt

With people's movement restricted, Ms Thomas said vulnerable victims were even harder to reach and her agency has had to adapt quickly.

"We've now moved towards 95 per cent of our support being delivered by telephone rather than direct face-to-face support and that's happened over the last two weeks," she said.

"It's a volatile situation where we're all learning new ways of delivering the same service that we always have."

The ABC spoke to other social workers who said there was confusion around what they could do under the COVID-19 restrictions.

One charity said the social workers they dealt with were being told they could only work from home, and could not do outreach with their clients.

They said some agencies were dropping goods off at doorsteps, while others were told they were not allowed to even do that.

But abused partners and children are still being urged to reach out urgently to police or others for help.

"Women should not feel as though they cannot reach out and seek the support they would when times were not as heightened as they are now during this pandemic," Ms Thomas said.

It was already bad

The coronavirus comes at a time when the social services system is already critically overstretched.

Stay up-to-date on the coronavirus outbreak Download the ABC News app and subscribe to our range of news alerts for the latest on how the pandemic is impacting the world

The latest Victorian crime stats show family violence reports are the highest on record, up 6.6 per cent last year to almost 85,000.

Experts say it's too early to tell if that means there's actually more violence, or more reporting.

But it means the baseline was already bad.

And a shocking report from the Commissioner for Children and Young People last year highlighted how the strained child protection system was already letting too many children fall through the cracks, leading to their deaths by suicide.

The State Government says it is helping agencies deal with family violence victims during the pandemic, but didn't provide specific details.

It says $6 million has been set aside for people made homeless due to the pandemic.

Already before the pandemic, there was a chronic shortage of crisis accommodation and social housing.

Recent research highlighted how even pregnant homeless women like Jenna have not being given any priority for housing, even though family violence is a key driver for being on the street.

RMIT's Juliet Watson said the situation was "terrible" for these women.

"They're already experiencing the hardship that goes along with homelessness," she said.

"They're trying to prepare to have a baby. In a sense, what we're doing is we're setting them up to fail."

And the most recent data shows more victims of family violence are falling into homelessness now than at the time of the royal commission.

An estimated 62 per cent of adults and children who were homeless last year because of family violence are still homeless — up 3 percentage points from four years ago — because of a lack of social housing.

Will coronavirus stop family violence progress?

Ms Neave notes that some of her recommendations are on the way.

For instance, the creation of family violence information and service hubs known as 'Orange Doors'.

Royal Commission into Family Violence heard from more than 160 witnesses over 20 days of sitting. ( AAP: David Crosling )

Ms Neave calls it "a great achievement" but notes only five of the 17 recommended centres across the state are in place.

And when it comes to the next step, bringing a perpetrator to court, the Royal Commission recommended new specialist family violence courts, with specially trained staff, linking victims with services.

Four years down the track, three of the recommended 14 courts are in place, with two more on the drawing board.

Ms Neave worries the momentum for change will be stopped in its tracks.

"The real worry is that there are so many strains at the moment, and stresses, that family violence could be forgotten," she said.

There is help if you ask

With no discernible end in sight to the coronavirus crisis, those on the frontline of family violence hope the answer lies with a reminder of the most important things.

"We all have to be really, really careful about our relationships," Assistant Commissioner McWhirter said.

"We have to really think about the people who we love, and we need to make sure that we actually look after each other."

Jenna just wants people like her to know they are places to go even in these lonelier times.

"There's so much help out there if you ask for it," she said.