Domestic Violence (cont.)
How can intimate partner abuse be prevented and stopped?
Effective solutions for preventing intimate partner abuse include providing
economic opportunity, mentors, role models, organized community programs for
youth and families, a school environment that promotes prevention of abusiveness
in any relationship, and adult family members who are nurturing and who provide
consistent, structured supervision.
According to the House of Ruth, a domestic violence center, everyone can help find ways to stop domestic
violence, either by donating money or time to a domestic-violence organization,
learning more about the problem, teaching children about healthy versus abusive
relationships, listening in a nonjudgmental way to a domestic violence victim
when he or she shares what they are going through, and giving victims
information about where to get help. Supporters of intimate partner abuse
victims can also discourage sexist jokes and remarks, boycott movies that
gratuitously depict intimate partner violence and violence against women, and
write legislators to support laws that protect and otherwise support intimate
violence sufferers. Advocacy can further involve encouraging one's own health-care providers to post information about the issue. In the workplace, those who
want to help stop to domestic abuse can organize a drive or fundraiser for goods
or money to give to a domestic-violence organization.
Where can people get help for domestic violence?
American Domestic Violence Crisis Line
3300 N.W. 185th Street, Suite 133
Portland, OR 97229
Phone: (503) 846-8748
Toll-free: 1-866-USWOMEN (International
Crisis Line)
http://www.866uswomen.org
The American Domestic Violence Crisis Line provides safety planning, support
services, and general information on domestic violence for American women living
overseas who are victims of domestic violence.
Communities United Against Violence
160 14th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: (415) 777-5500
Support Line: (415) 333-HELP
http://www.cuav.org
Communities United Against Violence offers crisis
intervention, counseling, advocacy and support for gay men and lesbians in
abusive relationships.
Maitri
234 East Gish Road #200
San Jose, CA 95112
Phone: (408) 436-8393
Toll-free Hotline: 1- 888-8-MAITRI
http://www.maitri.org
Maitri helps South Asian (Bengali,
Indian, Pakistani, and Sri Lankan) women with domestic violence, emotional abuse,
and family conflict.
National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-7233 (1-800-799-SAFE)
http://www.ndvh.org
The 24-hour, toll-free Hotline provides crisis intervention, referrals to
battered women's shelters and programs, social-service agencies, legal programs,
and other groups and organizations willing to help, and resources for battered
women and their friends and families.
The Network La Red
P.O. Box 6011
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: (617) 695-0877
Hotline: (617) 423-7233
http://www.thenetworklared.org
The Network La Red offers bilingual (English and Spanish) information and
resources for lesbian and bisexual women in violent relationships.
Reconstructive Surgery/Domestic Abuse Line
Toll-free: 1-800-842-4546
Reconstructive Surgery/Domestic Abuse Line provides
free reconstructive surgery for male and female victims of domestic violence.
Violence Project
PMB 131
955 Mass Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: (617)
354-6056
Toll-free Crisis Line: 1-800-832-1901
http://www.gmdvp.org
Violence Project offers information and
resources for gay men in violent relationships.
Future
The future of finding solutions to domestic violence includes
continuing to improve the effectiveness of treatment and to strengthen legal
protection for victims and accountability for abusers. Those goals should expand
effective treatment and legal protections to manage the unique issues faced by
individuals who are in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender relationships.
- Domestic violence is also called intimate partner violence, domestic abuse,
and intimate partner abuse and is any form of maltreatment that takes place in a
heterosexual or homosexual romantic relationship between adults or adolescents.
- Intimate partner violence is a major public-health problem, due to its
affecting more than 2 million women and 800,000 men and resulting in
homelessness of victims, billions of dollars in health-care costs, and lost work
productivity.
- Intimate partner abuse has been and in some ways continues to be
endorsed in all societies through legal sanctioning of the subjugation of women
and lack of legal protections for GLBT victims.
- While domestic abuse strikes
couples of all races, religions, social economic status, and sexual
orientations, risk factors for men or women becoming victims or abusers include
poverty, lack of a high school education, witnessing family violence as a child,
and attitudes of male domination and substance abuse, especially alcohol abuse.
- Warning signs for individuals to consider if they suspect they are the victim
of intimate partner violence include feeling demeaned, assaulted, or excessively
controlled by their partner.
- Warning signs friends, family members, and
coworkers can look for if they wonder whether the person they care about is the
victim of domestic abuse include frequent absences from school or work, numerous
injuries the victim tries to explain, low self-esteem, a change in their
personality, fear of conflicts, passive-aggressive behavior, blaming him- or
herself, isolation from others, or stress-related physical symptoms.
- Health
professionals unfortunately only screen for intimate partner abuse in about 20%
of the patients seen. However, domestic violence is most effectively assessed
when the professional asks questions that call for more than a "yes" or "no"
answer and do not directly inquire about domestic abuse, at least earlier during
any assessment interview.
- Domestic abuse is treated by establishing and
maintaining the safety of the victim, providing appropriate legal consequences
to the batterer, addressing the emotional impact on the victim and the problems
of the abuser, particularly if one of the problems includes alcohol or other
substance abuse.
- The prognosis of domestic violence can be quite negative if
it goes on untreated, in that the emotional and physical consequences of
continued abuse can be severe and even end in homicide. Treatment can improve
prognosis.
- Prevention of domestic violence involves providing economic
opportunity, mentors, role models, organized community programs for youth and
families, a school environment that promotes prevention of abusiveness in any
relationship, and adult family members who are nurturing and who provide
consistent, structured support.
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Last Editorial Review: 8/1/2007
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