Published: October 13, 2009 12:06 pm      

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

President Barack Obama has declared October National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Polite society doesn’t want to think about this unseemly underside that affects families across the country as well as locally, but Ada’s Family Crisis Center counselors don’t have the luxury of ignoring the problem. They see its results daily.

Sharell Caton, Ada Family Crisis Center director, and those with whom she works, counsel victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The center has a battered women’s shelter, a batterers’ reeducation program, a substance abuse counseling service and a DUI assessments and anger management program.

Their counselors stay busy. According to Caton, the center serviced approximately 160 women who were victims of domestic violence last year. Of those, ninety percent were Ada residents. Often they require safe shelter, housing, medical care, access to justice, culturally specific services and a chance to get back on their feet economically.

Sticks and stones do break bones, and so sometimes, do those living with others of the same family. But as bad as they are, broken bones and bruises do not represent the entire toll on victims. Caton said deep emotional damage is part and parcel to the same problem.

The Family Crisis Center not only harbors victims. It works with batterers to correct their behavior. Caton said battering often takes place in front of children who then grow up thinking it is normal. Therefore, perpetrators themselves grew up experiencing what they are now dispensing. As such, it is a vicious cycle that must be broken.

A proclamation issued by the president says, “During this month, we rededicate ourselves to breaking the cycle of violence. By providing young people with education about healthy relationships, and by changing attitudes that support violence, we recognize that domestic violence can be prevented.”

It is a worthwhile effort.