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Tag: trauma informed

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Community Share Mental Health Awareness Month Op-eds Sexual Assault

Effects that Domestic Violence has on Survivors’ Mental Health

Blog Header for article "effects that domestic violence has on survivors’ mental health".
Blog Header for article "effects that domestic violence has on survivors’ mental health".
As a Lead Trauma Support Partner (TSP) and License Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), I wanted to touch on the effects that domestic violence has on survivors’ mental health, since its Mental Health Awareness Month. We know from research that domestic violence (whether you’ve endured it personally or witnessed it as a child) increases one’s risk of experiencing depression, anxiety, substance use, suicidal behaviors and PTSD. But what do these “labels” actually look like in the day to day? People think depression is “feeling down or hopeless” and while that’s true for a lot of people, depression can also look like irritability, increased or decreased appetite, need for sleep, and /or interest in sex. It can also look like someone no longer doing the things that they used to enjoy like connecting with friends or family, participating in a hobby or pleasurable activities. Similarly, people think anxiety is “intense worrying’ but anxiety can also look like increased irritability, difficulty concentrating or restlessness (feeling like you always have to be doing something) or feeling like something bad is going to happen. Maybe you’re short tempered with your kids or peers. Maybe you’re on edge all the time. These are all symptoms of anxiety. Lastly, people think PTSD is “flashbacks and hypervigilance” and again that is true, but PTSD can also look like difficulty concentrating, memory problems or forgetfulness, impaired functioning at home, school or work, feeling numb, wanting to be alone, engaging in risky behaviors and difficulty falling asleep. Its important to recognize these “other” symptoms so that you can get help (if you’re the trauma survivor) or you can adjust your interventions (if you’re the advocate). If you’re the trauma survivor and you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, talk to someone – a trusted medical or mental health professional, a clergy member, a family elder, a friend or call 988 – the national crisis line if you’re in a mental health crisis. If you’re an advocate, ask the right questions, connect your client to services, be patient and understanding and most importantly, educate your clients about these other less common symptoms because it just might be what they needed to hear to seek out support. With so many service options (in-person, via tele-health and even text messaging), it’s never been more accessible to get the help you need. Join me this month as we work towards bringing awareness to mental health.

About the Author

Profile Picture for Desiré Martinez, LCSW-S Lead Trauma Support Partner

Desiré Martinez, LCSW-S is a Lead Trauma Support Partner for HCDVCC.

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Community Share Op-eds Sexual Assault

Healthy Relationships

Article about Healthy Relationships: Image shows hands over one another.
Article about Healthy Relationships: Image shows hands over one another.

1 in 3 teens will experience some form of physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional abuse by a dating partner and approximately 8.5 million women experienced sexual assault before the age of 18. Teen dating violence, a form of intimate partner violence, is the most prevalent form of youth violence – affecting youth regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status.

Just a couple months ago I was invited out to Austin, Texas to conduct a training for a group of young college-aged women. I began my presentation with the same eye-opening activity I always use  – “Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Now, raise your hand if you either have experienced or know someone who has experienced some form of intimate partner violence. Now open your eyes and look around.” There was not a single hand in the room that was not raised…

After concluding my presentation with the young women, a few came up to me to express how they wished they had the opportunity to learn about healthy relationships before they had started dating. So, here is where you come in – preventing teen dating violence requires a broad coalition of parents, schools, and community organizations to join forces to start having conversations about healthy relationships at an early age.

Here are a few steps you can take to help prevent teen dating violence:

  • Become a trusted source for information about relationships – talk about relationships, including difficult topics like red flags, sex, and dating violence.
  • Teach your children about healthy relationships – how to form them and how to recognize them. Healthy relationships are built on trust, honesty, respect, equality, and compromise. Children need to hear about what constitutes a healthy relationship and how safe relationships are established.
  • Encourage children to be assertive – to speak up for themselves and voice their opinions or needs. Teach and model ways to say “NO!”
  • Help children recognize warning signs of an unhealthy relationship – include jealousy, controlling behavior, and other red flags.
  • Encourage children to be active bystanders – to take action/give support when a friend is in an unhealthy relationship.

 

Effective prevention and action has been seen to significantly decrease cases of intimate partner violence in teens. If you are interested in learning more about healthy relationships or wanting to set up a healthy relationships training, please email tishya@dayahouston.org. 

Let’s do our part to decrease the number of hands that go up when asked “raise your hand if you either have experienced or know someone who has experienced some form of intimate partner violence.”

About the Author

TishyaBedi

Tishya Bedi is the Director of Outreach and Education at Daya Houston.

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Community Share Crime Victims Op-eds

Honoring Crime Victims’ Rights Week

This is a header from the https://www.tdcj.texas.gov website The words on it are Information for Victims

Honoring Crime Victims Rights’ Week

The 1970’s were a volatile time in America. The Vietnam War was still raging with constant protests and the Equal Rights Amendment was struggling to get ratified (and is still not ratified to date). In the meantime, victims of crime had very few if any rights. In 1972, the first three victim assistance programs were created in St. Louis, San Francisco and Washington, DC to begin to address the unique needs of crime victims. In 1976, Harris County District Attorney Carol S. Vance was serving as President of the National District Attorneys Association when he heard about a program in California to help victims through the difficult experience of the criminal justice process. He decided that Harris County needed a similar program, so he tasked Suzanne McDaniel to establish the first such program in Texas. In 1977 the Harris County District Attorney’s Office Victim Witness Division was created to provide information, assistance, and support for victims of crime in Harris County.

Harris County was ahead of the times because it was not until 1982, that President Ronald Reagan created the President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime. The report from the Task Forces had sixty-eight recommendations in five different areas including proposed Executive and Legislative action at both the Federal and State levels, proposed Federal action, proposed action for criminal justice system agencies, proposed actions for organizations and a proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution. As a result, the United States Congress passed the Federal Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982. This act changed the status of a crime victim from a person who merely identifies the perpetrator and testifies in court to the role of an active participant in the criminal justice process. Victims were allowed to provide victim impact statements to the court describing their experiences and costs of being a crime victim and guaranteeing the right to claim restitution. Two years later the US Congress enacted the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) that created a matching grant program to encourage states to create victim compensation funds and local programs to assist crime victims. Even though the Victim Witness Division had been established in 1977, it was not until the 69th Texas Legislature in 1985 passed HB 235 adding Chapter 56 to the Code of Criminal Procedure, Rights of Crime Victims. And in 1989 Texans voted to add the Victims Bill of Rights to the Texas Constitution (Article 1, Section 30). Over the years the Division has grown and changed its name to the Victim Services Division. In 2017, the Division applied for and received a grant to go from six Victim Assistance Coordinators to twenty-one! Their expansion continued and they now have twenty-five Victim Assistance Coordinators who reach out to over 20,000 victims of crime each year! How the Victim Services Division helps crime victims in Harris County: Basic Services
  • Orientation to the criminal justice system and process;
  • Assistance to victims who must testify;
  • Crisis Intervention
  •  Information about the individual case status and outcome;
  • Assistance with compensation;
  • Facilitating victim participation in the criminal justice system;
  • Information about and referral to community services;
  • Education and training for the general public, justice system personnel, and local service providers; and
  • Post disposition/conviction services
During Prosecution
  • Ensure that victims are afforded their rights.
  • Provide a victim impact statement, as well as assistance completing forms.
  • Provide notification of prosecution case status.
  • Provide court accompaniment
  • Prepare victims for the courtroom
  • Provide referrals to social services, counseling, and other criminal justice agencies.
  • Provide follow-up services, including reassurance, supportive listening, and options for solving problems related to the crime’s impact.
  • Provide a secure waiting area for victims now known as the Suzanne McDaniel Victim Waiting Room.
  • Assist with questions and concerns about the Crime Victims’ Compensation program.
  • Provide assistance with victim appearance coordination.
Post-Conviction
  • Provide victims with information about their right to address the court after sentencing.
  • Assist with the timely delivery of victim input to institutional corrections and paroling authorities.
  • Assist with parole notification of an inmate’s change of status within the Department of Criminal Justice.
  • Arrange for advocacy for victims at parole hearings.
  • Provide appellate notification to victims.
For a complete list of Victims’ Rights in Texas you can click on this link from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

About the Authors

Written by:

Amy Smith, Senior Director of Communications and Operations for HCDVCC

and

Colleen Jordan, Assistant Director for the HCDA Victim Services Division

Categories
Children Community Share Op-eds

Texas Advocacy Project

Screenshot 2023-03-09 at 11.47.12 AM
Screenshot 2023-03-09 at 11.43.20 AM
My name is Aarian Tipton. I am one of 3 licensed masters social workers with Texas Advocacy Project.

TAP provides free legal services and access to the justice system, and advances prevention through public outreach and education. We provide holistic trauma-responsive care in collaboration with the legal team. Our services aim to reduce barriers to legal services and provide pathways to improve long-term stability. Social workers are typically consulted after a survivor has spoken to a staff attorney, and expressed a need-or the staff attorney felt the survivor indicated they were in a high-risk situation.
A typical day for the social worker can look like speaking with a survivor about various safety concerns, stress, assessing mental health concerns, and providing various community resources. However, no day is the same and other challenges may arise. When survivors’ basic needs (shelter, food, mental health, ect.) are addressed, they are more likely to have improved engagement as well as improved legal outcomes. In addition to the case management/crisis management intervention we provide to survivors.

We have developed community partnerships such as with HCDVCC and UAHT, provide staff education and trainings, and provide internships for students. We currently have 3 interns. We provide services all over the state of Texas. Our website is: https://www.texasadvocacyproject.org/ we look forward to connecting with more organizations and survivors as it is our vision that all Texans live free from abuse.
Categories
Black History Month Community Share Op-eds

Testimony of the Righteous

Copy of January 2023 Newsletter (1200 × 558 px) (2)

Testimony of the Righteous

In honor of Larcenia Floyd, mother of George Floyd:

A tribute to the resilience of poor working-class women.

Act One – a play

I knew George Floyd’s mother even though I never met her face-to-face. I never shared a meal with her, nor did we gossip about our neighbors while waiting for the arrival of our monthly welfare check or being careful not to miss the Metro because we had houses to clean. I stood standing at the bus stop surrounded by the silence of Latino women going to some of the worst jobs in the city, we never said hello and never had time to say goodbye. No formal introduction would ever happen, but at the same time we were tribal sisters with ancient identical tattoos.

We wore the tattoos of poverty, Spirit, hard work, generational resilience, laughter, single parents, burritos, gospel music, flying bullets, black-eyed peas and cornbread, prayers, dreams deferred, and a sacred hope when there was nothing to hope for coupled with periodic despair. We kept our heads above water, but mostly we existed underwater with small pockets of air slowly keeping us alive. I knew George’s mother, but I never met her face-to-face.

She and I were the statistical conclusions of governmental research. We were the charted cycles of the marginalized studied in college classrooms across America while members of our families generationally rotated through the American prison system. We were Roosevelt’s New Deal now failed by deficient school systems, food deserts without food justice, racist red lining; we were brutalized by traumatized police systems, chronic medical disparities, and culturally insensitive gentrification of communities historically not seen as worthy.

Educated people studied us in sanitized United Way board meetings while preparing for their next funding cycle. We were Section 8 mothers: we had to be Mom and Dad at the same time as part of too many families with fathers touched by incarceration who were not allowed to live in government housing. We survived in a system for broken families that never intended our families to become financially grounded, mentally thriving, and sustained enough to envision a positive future.

We were expected, alone, to heal the sick as well as tame the wild. We were experts at surviving and morphing into distorted and contorted versions of ourselves, bound to Section 8 account numbers, housing inspectors, caseworkers, and slum landlords. We tried over and over to make things better as we tumbled through welfare systems and poverty programs that could not nourish us as mothers who were fragmented and broken by the constant shock of not having. I never knew George’s mother, but I will tell you one thing: I knew her pain. I knew her deep disappointments. I knew her feelings of abandonment.

We were American women rooted in African ways that would not, could not ever be remembered. We were grounded by the tribal energy of the diaspora in places where race and class hypocrisies danced well together, where poverty had always been a generational problem, hand-in-hand with the mass killings of Black men. The violence of poverty had never been far from the violence of the Black body with Black people dying by the hands of the prison system, by the hands of White murderers, and by the hands of people who looked just like them. The Black body individually and throughout history has always needed intensive care and healing.

Waiting patiently with patriotic foolishness, we were women of color trapped in a romanticized matrix of dreamlike American visions that were never meant for melanated women who surrender to life in marginalized ways. We were mothers waiting for the next funeral, the next open grave, the next balloon released into blue skies.

We were colonized and constantly surrounded by the stress and the fear of whiteness. Each day we bore witness to systemic manipulation of poor whites rooted in Eurocentric brutality based on distorted stories of indentured servitude and racialized traumas used to divide, control, and conquer.

We noticed the deadly residues of white supremacy shown through the bold and dangerous acting out of young white people based in their family system’s traumatic nightmares. I never met George’s mother, but I do know that we hungered for reparations and a home, waited for those forty acres of work well done with mule at hand and a place of safety we could call our own.

With intention, we carry the ancestral heartbeats and the resistance of those who came before us, always resisting and fighting to reclaim the humanity of a people. Even when shot in the back with cuffed hands, we resist. We resist and die while jogging on a sunny day. We resist by suicide, heart attacks, and nervous breakdowns. We resist by selling cigarettes on corners until we stop breathing.

We are magical women resisting, hiding under the sun, birthing new people, disappearing, murdered while sleeping or simply coming from a store eating Skittles. We are often accused of resisting while being suffocated with knees on the neck, quietly whispering, “I can’t breathe,” quietly whispering, “You are killing me,” while echoing the sacred childlike words of, “Mama…Mama….” I know George Floyd’s mother even though I never met her face-to-face.

About the Author

Hitaji Aziz- M.A., RMT, Reiki Master
Social Healing for the Greater Good
Keynote Speaker, Life Coach, Holistic Healer

Categories
Community Share Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month

Abc 13’s TeenDating Violence Awareness Townhall

Live Stream Town Hall for Teen Dating Violence Awareness

Join ABC13’s Daniela Hurtado and community changemakers for an Action 13 town hall, highlighting rising concerns about teen dating violence.
Categories
Children Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month

Teen Dating Violence and Red Flags

Expect Respect: Respect Yourself

Expect Respect is a program offered through SAFE in Austin, Tx.. The purpose of the program is to promote healthy relationships among teens. Recently, SAFE partnered with HCDVCC to offer this program to youth in grades 6-12. As we are leading up to February, which is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, facilitator Stefanie Hayes is teaching the youth how to be aware and recognize Red Flags that can lead to dating violence. Stefanie also serves as a support to the educators, parents, and communities that serve our youth by providing prevention and the basics on teens and dating violence.

Here are a few things to know and share when working with tweens and teens to help spot teen dating violence and promote healthy relationships.

The first thing you will need know- what is a Red Flag?

A Red Flag is a sign or behavior that you see in someone that could turn problematic later; especially as it pertains to forming a relationship.

The most common red flags are lack of communication, control, aggressive behavior, can’t take No for an answer, and disrespect. These are just a few but recognizing these flags will allow you to help teens avoid toxic relationships.

The most important thing you can help young people do is to not ignore what they are seeing or feeling. If they encounter someone who is exhibiting this type of behavior, it is important for them to be aware and know how to handle the behavior. It may be necessary to pause and reflect, evaluate, and decide if they should walk … or better yet run away!

Overall, the key to spotting teen violence it to cultivate self -awareness. If we can help young people love themselves and know their worth, then they will be quick to identify what is healthy versus what is not. Doing this helps young people to avoid red flags and toxicity all together.

About the Author

Stefanie Hayes
Expect Respect Facilitator
HCDVCC

Categories
Op-eds

US Court Ruling response

RESPONSE

Local Domestic Violence Agencies stand united in outrage at the recent ruling on February 2, 2023, by the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals declaring a law that restricts those with domestic violence restraining and protective orders from owning firearms unconstitutional. An Nisa, Aid to Victims of Domestic Violence, Bay Area Turning Point, The Bridge Over Troubled Waters, DAYA, Family Ties, Family Time, Fresh Spirit Wellness, The Empowered Survivor, Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, Houston Area Women’s Center, and Northwest Assistance Ministries Family Violence Program stand together in opposition of a ruling that has devastating and deadly consequences for those suffering the trauma of intimate partner violence.

According to the Texas Council on Family Violence’s Honoring Texas Victims report, in 2021 204 Texans were killed by their intimate partner, 46 in Harris County alone. Of the 46 killed in Harris County, 35 or 76% were killed by a firearm, and over 50% of those killed were black women. Additionally, 34% of the offenders were prohibited from possessing a firearm under Texas law and 40% were prohibited from possessing a firearm under federal law. The number one predictor of a domestic violence homicide is the threat of homicide and the ownership of a firearm. An 11 city study found “…increased risk of intimate partner femicide included perpetrator’s access to a gun and previous threat with a weapon” (Campbell, 2003). Yet three judges – in their infinite wisdom – found it unconstitutional to protect women. Aren’t laws intended to err on the side of protecting people rather than harming them? For the record, in Texas, protective orders are civil legal lawsuits that are granted when domestic violence has occurred and there is a strong likelihood that it will continue. Protective orders help create boundaries of safety for a survivor by restricting harm doers from going to survivors’ homes, workplaces, and/or schools while also strictly forbidding the person from communicating in a threatening or harassing manner. These orders can be granted for any amount of time, and prior to this decision, required the surrender of a firearm for the duration of the order.

This court ruling is one more devastating decision, especially for survivors in Texas, that creates greater challenges for them to become safer. We know that firearms are the number one method of homicide for victims of intimate partner violence and rulings like this only send the message that the safety of women is not a priority. As Harris County continues to see the highest number of domestic violence related fatalities in the state of Texas, it is incumbent upon us all to ensure access to services and protections including the recognition that underserved communities of color experience the highest rates of homicides and the lowest rates of accessing formal services for protections.

One of the strongest protections has been the requirement of surrendering firearms when there is a protective order in place. This law has SAVED lives even as a voluntary program. Wait, what? Yes, you read that right – a voluntary gun surrender program. Currently, in Harris County, if a protective order is granted against a harm doer who owns a gun, they are offered a way to voluntarily surrender it through Harris County’s Safe Surrender Program. Thanks to the laxed and conflicting laws about gun ownership in Texas, actually requiring someone to surrender it with some type of investigation, enforcement and/or accountability does not happen. While Harris County’s Safe Surrender Program is not perfect, it is our best attempt at giving an alternative in adhering to the mandate to surrender firearms when a protective order is granted. It is a step towards increasing safety for survivors. Now even this small step in progress feels insignificant as this court decision strips survivors of more and more protections that should be due to them under the law.

Countless numbers of women have relayed stories to advocates in our community about the threats they received to be shot and killed, and for many women, this threat is made real. In 2022 our community experienced extremely high rates of deadly intimate partner violence and ever-increasing felony level assaults. No one can watch the news on a nightly basis without hearing about another tragic death. Families are suffering and front-line workers are exhausted and cannot keep up with the need. Our community should never have to face losing – a neighbor, a family member, a friend, a Houstonian – due to intimate partner violence. And…now this court ruling supporting the ownership of firearms when there is a protective order – UNACCEPTABLE.

Along with the highest number of homicides, Harris County continues to see the highest turn away rate for emergency shelter, a housing waitlist over 900 families deep, and long wait lists for counseling and therapeutic services. One domestic violence homicide can cost a community close to 15 million dollars (DeLIsis et al., 2010). This cost cannot even begin to account for the loss of a mother to her children, or a family member. Yet – we can put our priority on ensuring that the right to bear firearms is more important than the right to be SAFE.

We will not be quiet, we will not let go, we will unite our voices of outrage and the need to support laws that SAVE lives, not destroy them. Our leaders and decision makers need to hear us and make change to eradicate the laws that support the senseless death of survivors at the hands of a would be loved one. There is still much work to be done and we will not stop advocating for protection for victims and survivors that are affected by the lack of laws and protections from firearms.
NO MORE

NNEDV Statement Regarding United States v. Rahimi

BWJP Reacts to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s Disappointing Ruling Undermining Federal Firearms Prohibitions for Persons Who Have Committed Acts of Domestic Violence – BWJP

https://tcfv.org/wp-content/uploads/Call-to-Action-Gun-Violence-Final.pdf