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Violence
City Mourns
13) say they know the warning signs of a
bad/hurtful relationship.
Who is at risk?
Both boys and girls can become victims,
although the kinds of abuse they experience
differs. Girls are more likely to threaten
self-harm, pinch, kick or scratch while boys
are more likely to be seriously injure their
partners. Victims can belong to all races,
income levels, religions and social classes.
What does make a difference are the kinds
of supports available when it comes to leav-
ing an abusive
relationship.
“What matters
is: Do girls have
the resources to
get out of a rela-
tionship?”
Timmins says.
“Poverty plays
into that and so
does drug and
alcohol abuse. Family makes a difference.
Do they have a mom or dad there to notice?
Is there violence in the family that normal-
izes what’s going on? That’s not going to
impact whether they get into a situation. But
it will influence the resources they have.”
Extreme jealousy
Dislike of family and friends
Constant texting
Wants your attention all the time
Puts you down, humiliates or degrades
you
Timmins said the most important warning
signs are your own feelings about the rela-
tionship. Helathy love does not involve fear,
pain and emotional turmoil.
“Young people often have a stereotype of
what intimate partner violence looks like,”
Timmins said.
“So if they
don’t
have
black eyes or
bruises they
question their
own feelings
of lack of
safety.”
But if you
don’t
feel
safe, then you
should pay attention to that feeling, she
said.
“Trust yourself. You have a right to be
treated with respect. And you have a right to
leave a relationship.”
Both boys and girls can
become victims, although
the kinds of abuse they
experience differs
how can teens recognize an
abusive relationship?
Domestic violence experts stress that
abuse tends to follow a pattern, where one
partner is trying to control the other. And
the abuse tends to get worse over time. Any
kind of slapping, hitting or physical vio-
lence clearly is abuse. So is any kind of
forced sex. But physical abuse may not
emerge until later in the relationship.
Emotional abuse may be more difficult to
recognize. It can range from telling you
nobody else will love you, saying that
you’re ugly all the way through threatening
suicide if you leave the relationship.
“Abusers can be very charming and they
don’t always leads with violence,” Timmins
said. ‘So there can be a lot of romancing in
the early stages.
“The common thing we see is an attempt
to isolate the victim,” Timmins said.
“Isolation and especially social isolation is
very common in youth violence. The perpe-
trator tries to get in between their partner
and their family and friends.”
Timmins said perpetrators often manipu-
late their partners in subtle ways.
Warning signs may include:
Wanting to know where you are all the
time.
What’s Sex Got to Do With it?
Three quarters of teens report beginning
girlfriend/boyfriend relationships before the
age of 14, according to a 2008 study by the
nonprofit Love is Respect. The risk of these
relationships becoming abusive is greater
for teens who become sexually involved.
The Love is Respect study found that 69
percent of those teens who had sex by age
14, said they have gone through one or
more types of abuse in a relationship.
It’s important to note that only 11 percent
of girls and 14 percent of boys have had sex
by age 15, according to research from The
Guttmacher Institute. But by age 19, 70
percent of teens have had sexual relation-
ships, and the average age of first sexual
experience is 17. One in five high school
girls say a partner abused them physically,
emotionally or sexually.
Parents often do not know what’s happen-
ing in their teens’ relationships. Only 33
percent of teen victims say they told anyone
about it.
Photo BY SuSan frieD
continued from page 1
Members of Yashawnee Vaughn’s family answered questions from reporters
at City Hall on Wednesday morning.
Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman lead a moment of silence in the
honor of 14-year-old Yashawnee Vaughn that morning during the City
Council meeting. Police suspect she was killed on March 19. A search for
her body has so far come up empty-handed.
He said the city had lost a “sweet, effervescent, lovely, outgoing, young
woman … who loved studying technology.”
This is the sixth time that Portland has lowered the flags in honor of a young
person who has been lost at the hands of another person.
and that you don’t deserve to be hurt,”
Timmins says.
“So find a way to tell someone what’s
going on: a parent or if you can’t tell a par-
ent then find a safe adult. I would recom-
mend a school counselor, a clergy person or
a teacher. Tell them and if that person does-
n’t help find another safe person who will.”
Abusers too can seek help to change their
behaviors, Timmins said.
“There is a lot of room for growth and
change for young people. Batterers inter-
vention programs are available. Healthy
relationship education classes can really
help young men who simply don’t have the
tools and knowledge about healthy relation-
ships.
friends and Safe adults can help
Make the abuse Stop, But how?
Teens who feel they are in a relationship
spiraling out of control should pay attention
to their feelings.
For victims the priority is to tell someone
and get help.
“You need to know that it’s not your fault
Adults can help by believing the victims
and helping them find resources. Safety is
crucial because the most dangerous time for
victims is when they are leaving the rela-
tionship.
“Stick with them and let them know you
don’t have all the answers but you will help
them get to the right people,” says Timmins.
Teens can raise their concerns with their
friends. “Tell them you’re concerned for
them and this is why,” Timmins said. “Say
you’ve learned something about domestic
violence and you seen these red flags. If the
survivor says no, leave the door open. You
don’t have to talk someone out of their feel-
ings or blame them.”
Teens feel like they are snitching when
they go to an adult, but it’s very important
to do that because domestic violence esca-
lates. “If it’s not dealt with it can become
very dangerous,” Timmins says. “ It does
happen – women die.”
find help here
Gateway Center for Domestic Violence
503-988-6400
Bradley Angle 503-281-2442
VOA Home Free 503-771-5503
Or visit Multnomah County’s Resource
Page
http://web.multco.us/dv/resources-vic-
tims
Health
continued from page 1
is that “Even in a system with all the quality improvement
strengths of the VA, important gaps remain,” he says. The
reasons are unknown, he says, and more research is needed
to understand the drivers of these differences in clinical out-
comes.
Trivedi and his colleagues also examined whether racial
disparities in care were driven primarily by a concentration
of black enrollees in lower performing VA facilities or dif-
ferential quality for white and black veterans receiving care
in the same VA facility. With the exception of mammogra-
phy screening, performance rates improved for white and
black veterans on each quality indicator for processes and
outcomes of care, most particularly for eye
exams for diabetes.
Although the VA is a universal health system
that has spent a decade working on quality
improvement, Trivedi says the study has broad
implications. The findings underscore the
urgency of “focused efforts” to improve inter-
mediate clinical outcomes among black
Americans in both the VA and other health care
settings. “We not only have to measure whether
someone got a test but also whether anything happened as a
result of that test,” he says. “In other words, whether the test
showed that treatment was indicated; whether
the treatment was received; and whether the
treatment translated into improvements in
measurements like blood pressure or choles-
terol control.”
The study’s coauthors were Regina Grebla of
the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown
University, Steven Wright of the VA’s Office of
Quality improvements in the VA health
care system narrowed racial gaps Iin
care, but not In outcomes
Big differences persist between African
American and White veterans in areas
like blood pressure and cholesterol
control, for unknown reasons
Quality and Performance, and Donna Washington of the
Greater Los Angeles VA Medical Center and UCLA.
The findings come at the heels of a growing number of
studies, most recently from the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ)’s 2010 National Healthcare
Quality Report and National Healthcare Disparity Report.
The AHRQ and other studies show that racial and ethnic
disparities continue at persistently high levels.
april 6, 2011 The Portland Skanner Page 3