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Domestic Violence Safety Planning
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Battered women may face numerous risks on a daily basis, but planning ahead can enhance safety during or after a violent incident. Please contact DASI for an appointment, or call the 24-hour hotline for assistance in developing a personalized safety plan for you and your family. This brief outline may help you get started:
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- Plan and practice how to get safely out of the house, and think about where you will go. Make sure your children understand this as well.
- Keep wallet, purse, keys, cash, medications, and important papers and phone numbers in an accessible place so that you can grab them if you need to leave quickly.
- Tell trusted neighbors about the violence and ask that they call the police if they hear suspicious noises. Set up a code word or signal with them if necessary.
- Teach children to call 911.
- During an argument, remain in rooms with access to an outside door if possible.
- Obtain prepaid phone cards, use a friend’s phone, or use coin operated phones to keep communications confidential.
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Safety planning with a restraining order, or when your partner has left the home:
Always keep your restraining order on or near your person. Remember it when you change handbags.
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- Give copies of the restraining order to police departments in the community where you live and visit or work on a regular basis. Give copies to your children’s schools.
- Inform trusted friends, clergy, and your employer that you have a restraining order in effect.
- You may call the police if your partner violates the restraining order.
- Prepare a safety plan, or alter your usual routine when leaving work, or when grocery shopping, banking, etc.
- Change the locks and/or install a security system. Increase outdoor lighting.
- Ask neighbors to call the police if they see your partner near your house.
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| Safety and your emotional health: |
- Have a plan for when you feel depressed and alone and tempted to return to a potentially abusive situation.
- Have a plan for when you must communicate with your partner in person or by phone.
- Read and learn about the dynamics of domestic violence and abuse in relationships.
- Enlist the support of trusted family and friends.
- Reach out for services designed to help, such as counseling and support groups at your local domestic violence program.
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Sexual Assault Risk Reduction
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| Date Rape Drugs: |
| Alcohol is used most often in drug facilitated assault. A date rape drug such as Rohypnol or GHB can be unobtrusively slipped into a drink. It is colorless, odorless and tasteless after it dissolves, and it can take effect quickly, causing physical weakness and helplessness, and can render you unconscious. In an incapacitated state, you would be unable to escape or resist a rape or to call for help. If you are sexually assaulted under the influence of these drugs, you may not recall it afterwards, or may only remember slight details, because they can cause amnesia. These drugs increase your risk of sexual assault, sexual abuse and even death. |
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| Be Aware: |
- Never leave drinks unattended
- Never accept drinks in open containers
- Do not take drinks from a punch bowl
- Watch the person preparing your drinks
- Don't accept drinks from strangers
- Pills or liquid slipped into drinks my be colorless, odorless and tasteless
- Drugs take effect in 15 minutes of ingestion
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| Get Help Immediately if You Feel: |
- Much more intoxicated than your usual response to the amount of alcohol consumed
- Extremely nauseous or dizzy
- Loss of peripheral vision
- Heaviness in arms and legs
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| GET TO A SAFE PLACE |
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| If You Believe Someone Has Been Drugged: |
- Get him or her immediate medical attention
- Do not leave him or her alone for any reason
- Keep his or her beverage for drug testing
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Using date rape drugs in the commission of a sexual assault is a first-degree crime and constitutes aggravated sexual assault.
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