domestic violence – The Milford Group

Do You Have An Obligation To Protect Your Employees?

February 28, 2020

We all have thought about what our perfect job would look like whether we have the qualifications are not we have thought about it. Well I was reading a fairly old article but the information is very relevant to today’s life experiences. The question I ask is when we are looking for our perfect job do we also look at if they have policies in place to protect me against work and family violence. This is just an excerpt from a article I recently read.

On May 16, 1986, gunshots rang out in the 46th-floor trading room of Smith Barney Harris Upham & Company’s midtown Manhattan offices.

Twenty-two-year-old Richard Wagenknecht entered the building that evening to confront his ex-girlfriend, 24-year-old Susana Jimenez. He tried to pull a ring off her finger, and when she resisted, he shot her in the head, fatally wounding her. Susana’s 35-year-old colleague Charles Walker tried to come to her aid, but Wagenknecht shot him twice in the chest, killing him. Wagenknecht then turned the gun on himself, but he survived.

The image of domestic violence as a “family matter” contained within the home is an outdated and dangerous notion. Often, domestic abuse spills into the workplace–with devastating consequences for victims, their colleagues, and their employers.The image of domestic violence as a ‘family matter’ contained within the home is an outdated and dangerous notion.

A victim may be harassed over the phone or email, be absent because of injuries, or simply be less productive due to extreme stress. If a victim has tried to leave a relationship, the workplace may be the first place an abuser comes looking.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and my office is working to raise awareness of the proactive steps that companies can take to help ensure their workers’ safety. After all, no workplace is immune to domestic abuse. Nearly one in four large private companies reported at least one incidence of domestic violence in the previous year, according to a study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And one-third of all women killed in U.S. workplaces between 2003 and 2008 were killed by a current or former intimate partner.

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When Domestic Violence Becomes A Workplace Issue After two employees were killed, the hospital where they worked decided to tackle the issue head-on. By Melissa Jeltsen.

January 18, 2020January 19, 2020

The two deaths came in quick succession, shocking the close-knit community of health care workers at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center.

First, in August 2013, an administrative assistant was fatally shot by her estranged husband while she was helping her 3-year-old son get into a car. Five months later, a nurse who worked with oncology patients was stabbed to death by her son after a history of domestic altercations.

“She was very optimistic and positive,” said Michele McKee, director of nursing services. “The staff is still struggling with the loss. There was denial. Tears. Anger. And then, guilt. What did we miss? What could we have done?”

While hospital staff had been trained to identify patients who were experiencing domestic violence, they didn’t pay the same attention to warning signs in their own peers, said Leslie Hott, St. Joseph’s human resources manager.

“Our value statement says, ‘loving service, compassionate care,’” Hott said. “We typically think about that for those we care for, but not each other.”

That is now changing.

St. Joseph is undergoing an ambitious effort to address domestic violence among its workforce, rolling out an intensive training program to help staff members identify — and hopefully prevent — domestic violence, as well as a new workplace policy to support employees who are suffering.

The hospital partnered with Futures Without Violence, a nonprofit that has helped organizations across the country address how domestic violence hurts its workforce. In 2014, Futures began a pilot site project called Low Wage, High Risk to develop best practices for workplaces where employees may be vulnerable to physical and sexual violence. The nonprofit is currently collaborating with tomato crop workers in Florida and restaurant employees in New York, as well as health care workers at St. Joseph in Towson.

The hospital didn’t have a formal workplace domestic violence policy in place when its staffers were killed. Most organizations across the country don’t, even though domestic violence affects 1 in 4 women in the U.S.

There was denial. Tears. Anger. And then, guilt. What did we miss? What could we have done?Michele McKee, director of nursing services

When your abuser is a cop: Domestic violence involving police leaves ‘no margin for error’ – al.com

December 15, 2019December 15, 2019

Morgan County Sheriff’s Deputy Donald Steven Fanning was found guilty of domestic violence by strangulation in Feb. 2012. That same month he was fired from his position. But it wasn’t until 2016 that he was decertified, or prevented from ever serving as a police officer again.

“He then grabbed me by my hair on both sides slammed me into door and repeated knocking my head into door…He got on me and had one hand on my throat and one hand pulled back like he was going to hit me and said ’I will f****** kill you myself then I wouldn’t have to worry about you anymore,’” the victim wrote in her voluntary statement to police, in wide, sloping child-like handwriting.
— Read on www.al.com/news/2019/12/when-your-abuser-is-a-cop-domestic-violence-involving-police-leaves-no-margin-for-error.html

It’s Here!,Telling You’re Stories With Trina. Podcast

I’m so excited, but a little nervous about starting my first podcast. I believe we don’t talk enough about certain issues and some we give to much attention. My objective is to enlighten those who don’t know the signs and statistics of dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and maternal health care issues. Telling the stories of those who have been traumatized and victimized, and just bringing together those professionals who can shed some light on these issues and help heal an bring about awareness and prevention. I hope you will join me weekly as we discuss these and other topics on Telling You’re Stories With Trina. Listen on Spotify.

Black Women Are Staying Silent

October 14, 2019January 18, 2020

When someone decides to threaten, stalk, harass or abuse his or her partner, what might that victim do? The answer seems obvious to many of us: Tell someone. Tell a family member, a good friend, a domestic violence advocate or police—someone who can help you.

Except, not everyone feels that way. Some contend that Black women specifically are more reluctant to disclose domestic violence than other ethnicities for several different reasons, one of which is entrenched in Black culture.

The ‘Strong Black Woman’ Stereotype

Domestic violence has been shown to affect the Black community disproportionally—Black women experience domestic violence at rates 30 to 50 percent higher than White women. Several things could be blamed for this—studies show domestic violence is more prevalent among those living with financial insecurity, and twice as many Black men are unemployed as White men. It could also have something to do with a response to cultural taboos.

“Women of all races and ethnicities who have endured domestic violence have to make the choice at some point to stay or leave their abusers. For Black women, the first response is often to not report, not tell anyone. We want to protect our men. It’s not easy to turn them over to the police, the courts and other institutions that have been historically racist and brutal to them,” says Zoë Flowers, an advocate has spent 17 years in the field of domestic violence. She is the program manager at Women of Color Network and the author of From Ashes to Angel Dust: A Journey Through Womanhood, a book of candid interviews with women who have survived violence.

Black survivors report distinct barriers to disclosing abuse that can leave many in harms way.

Source: Black Women Are Staying Silent