THE NEW DOMINION/John Arundel
With war still
raging in Iraq and our country's financial system seemingly teetering on the
edge of Humpty's Wall, it might appear there's little more we can stomach these
days on that proverbial Wall of Worry.
But the State
of Virginia -- where the unemployment rate just hit an 11-year high -- has
inherited an unwanted residual of the economic downturn: Domestic violence
agencies in the state are reporting that they responded to a whopping 50,000
crises in 2007, averaging more than 100 each day.
With
little-noticed fanfare with everything else going on, Gov. Tim Kaine on
Wednesday proclaimed October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Kaine pointed
to the need for greater public awareness of support services for victims and the
importance of efforts to reduce incidents of sexual and domestic violence
throughout the state.
“There is a
critical need to increase public awareness about the psychological, physical and
economic costs of domestic violence and to increase support for victims and
prevention programs.” Kaine said.
During the
2008 Legislative Session of the Virginia General Assembly, lawmakers at the
urging of Gov. Kaine passed laws that ensured reimbursement for healthcare
providers performing physical evidence recovery kits (PERK), banned the use of
polygraph tests on victims of sexual violence, required faster reporting of
protective orders, and repealed the law that allowed a man to marry a child (14
years of age or older) in order to avoid prosecution for rape of the
child
According to
the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, more than 6,000
adults and children were housed in shelters this past year due to sexual and
domestic violence incidents. Another
1,800 families were not able to be immediately accommodated in shelters due to a
lack of space and were helped by emergency safety arrangements.
While local programs provide a broad range of
assistance to those who are affected by domestic violence, including counseling,
access to medical and mental health services, education, housing and financial
and legal support, Virginia’s Secretary for Health and Human
Resources, Marilyn Tavenner, noted that the state’s Department of Health works
in collaboration with Action Alliance on a wide range of prevention programs, on
initiatives to teach children and adults about healthy relationships, and on
efforts to highlight the community-wide implications of sexual and domestic
violence.
Tavenner said it is crucial for people at risk
to not hesitate to call the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Hotline,
1-800-838-8238, for referral to a program in their area.
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