USA -ABUSE HOTLINES

How can I get help if I am a victim of
domestic abuse or domestic violence?
If you are in immediate danger of domestic
violence or have already been hurt,
call for help: 911
If you want to talk with someone for support
or about how to get help, call the
National Domestic Violence Hotline:
1-800-799-7233
You can email the
National Domestic Violence Hotline
for help: ndvh@ndvh.org
If you are deaf, email the
National Domestic Violence Hotline
for help at: deafhelp@ndvh.org
The National Domestic Violence Hotline has a
telephone for helping the hearing-impaired:
1-800-787-3224 (TTY)
If you need a shelter from domestic violence,
or other support, you can call your
state’s branch of the
National Coalition Against Domestic
Violence.
To find your state’s hotline number, go to the
http://www.ncadv.org/resources/StateCoalitionList_73.html

Besides calling for immediate help when
necessary, what else can I do to protect
myself from domestic violence in the
long term?
1. If you live with someone who abuses you,
you need to protect yourself for the long term.
2. If someone is stalking you, and you have a
feeling that you might get hurt, trust your
instincts and protect yourself.
You are in extra danger if your stalker or abuser
talks about murder or suicide, or if you are
thinking of leaving the relationship.
Women are more at risk of being killed
if they leave an abusive relationship,
so they must develop a safe plan for departure.
3. Take all threats seriously.
To assure your future safety, take some action
to protect yourself:
4. Contact a domestic violence hotline to plan
for your safe future. People who are staffing
the phones or email can help you to plan
how to protect yourself. They can refer you to
other services and recommend shelters to
stay in. They can inform you about the laws in
your area,
and they can advise you about restraining orders.
5. Develop a safety plan that specifies who will be
with you when you need companionship and
protection.
6. Also plan for safety in your workplace or at
your school.
7. Call people who are willing to help you and
tell them how they can help to protect you
now and in the future.
8. If you have been abused in front of others,
ask witnesses to write down what they saw.
9. Contact the police if your abuser has broken
a law, or even if you just think they might
have broken a law. Assaulting you or stealing
or destroying your property is a crime.
10. Consider getting a restraining order to keep
your spouse or intimate partner away from you.
BUT>>>>>>>>>keep in mind that
A restraining order has no force behind it, in
and of itself; it is just a piece of paper.
The police can enforce the order only if
someone violates it, and then only if
someone reports the violation. This means
that you must be endangered in some way
for the police to step in!
They will punish the offender at that point.
11. Take a Self Defense course to protect
yourself.

ADDITIONAL REMINDER:
Delete any emails your send
or receive better yet use
someone’s else’s computer
If you are worried about the
privacy of your email on
your home computer, you
might want to set up a free email
account for yourself on the web.
If you set up an account
with Hotmail or Yahoo, for
example, your email messages
will be stored on the Hotmail or
Yahoo server instead
of your own computer.