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                         October 18, 2002

Awareness key to wiping out domestic abuse

Story and photo by Kathy Eastwood
Staff Writer

President Bush recently declared October as Domestic Violence Awareness month.

Sharon Kane, Family Advocacy Program Manager for the Army Community Service division here believes that awareness and prevention are key to ending the cycle of violence in a family.

"Studies have shown that prevention is successful in preventing abuse by interrupting the cycle of abuse," Kane said. "We do this by providing anger management, stress reduction and parenting classes.

"We are working on de-stressing for the holidays because Thanksgiving and Christmas are well known stress inducers," she added.

Kane said there are only a few instances of domestic violence in the West Point community, but it does exist.

"It goes across the board, from commanders to enlisted men and women. The recent cases at Fort Bragg let us know that it does exist," she said. "Anger is a huge problem and it can escalate. Anger management classes and learning how to relax and de-stress is very helpful in interception."

FAP also has referral programs in the form of shelters, programs and counseling. A victim can go to the hospital, call the military police, command, FAP and the chaplain.

"Fear and embarrassment is usually why someone won’t get help," Kane said. "It’s hard to get through that, but they do have resources here and someone needs to know what the victim is going through, rather than saying nothing and risking serious injury.

"Intervention is handled by the medical and social services aspect of the department. Prevention is a priority and a lot of it has to do with awareness," she added.

Military families are constantly dealing with sress factors like absent spouses and parents. Deployments can cause anger.

"For example, we work with deployment, such as the National Guard here," Kane explained. "It’s a huge disruption for the family and we help by providing resources to ease the transition.

"People need to educate themselves about what resources are available so they can get out of bad relationships.

"Many women won’t leave abusive relationships for financial reasons," Kane said. "Transitional Compensation provides funds, PX and commissary privileges to people until a decision regarding a divorce or other final decisions are made."

Children often suffer as well in domestic abuse cases, even if they are not the ones abused. Kane believes that this is, in itself, a form of child abuse.

"Children are traumatized when they witness abuse and studies have shown that many people coming from abusive families will think this is the norm and could develop a pattern of abuse," Kane said. "Children from abusive families have a high incidence of committing crimes and suicide."

Kane said the ACS program Wee Ones Play Morning helps parents network with others in a safe environment. The program is held every Monday, 9:30 to 11 a.m. at the Post Chapel Annex.

Prevention programs appear to be working because DoD is beginning to see fewer cases of abuse, a trend Kane thinks will grow over time.

"Awareness and prevention is the key," she said.

For information on domestic violence programs and resources, call ACS at 938-3655.