Recent crisis center calls surge 23 percent

A recent string of acts of violence to families has led to a 23 percent increase in the number of calls from persons who either are domestic violence victims or fear they are in a situation where they may be, according to the director of the Lincoln County Crisis Solutions.

“I have been in crisis centers in much larger metropolitan areas — in Washington, D.C, and San Diego — and I have never seen this kind of (per capita) violence,” said Barb Guthneck, director of the county crisis center.

Guthneck said calls to the Lincoln County Crisis Line — 293-3223 — have increased dramatically since the two Dec. 13 and Jan. 3 apparent domestic violence homicides. And, said Guthneck, it’s not just women calling.

“Both women and men are calling saying they were worried in the past about their spouse/partner seriously hurting them, but now that they know there have been two deaths in Libby they are scared and asking for help,” Guthneck said. “You wouldn’t think there would be that many men calling, but we do get a large number of calls of men who are concerned. For some reason, more men here are concerned about domestic violence.”

Guthneck said there are instances where both spouses call, expressing concerns about the other doing them harm.

“We have to be careful with that,” she said. “Sometimes they don’t know the other has called. Sometimes they do, but not always,” indicating that a revelation that a spouse has gone outside the home for help because of a concern could further heighten an already stressful relationship.

“We work to empower them to make their own decision about reporting the domestic violence incidents to law enforcement, but don’t require it for us to help them,” Guthneck said.

Guthneck said the assistance the center offers is helping them come up with a plan of action to stay safe.  Often, she said, that means that they must leave the abusive partner before they too end up dead. 

Guthneck said sometimes persons are just not meant to be together.

“We see couples who are great people individually, but bring them together and they don’t mix, like oil and water,” Guthneck said. “Sometimes people are just meant to be apart.”

 Lincoln County Crisis Solutions has two shelters in Lincoln County, one in Libby and one in Eureka, where they provide emergency shelter while the survivor makes decisions and gathers resources to move to a safer location. 

“If our shelters are full, we try to make arrangements with other shelters to help them,” she said.

For men or women, domestic violence includes pushing, slapping, hitting, throwing objects, forcing or holding the person hostage, striking the other person with an object, or using a weapon. 

Domestic violence can also be mental or emotional. However, what will hurt a man mentally and emotionally, can in some cases be very different from what hurts a woman. For some men, being called a coward, impotent or a failure can have a very different psychological impact than it would on a woman, Guthneck said.

Statistically, men are more likely to resort to physical violence than women though women are quite capable as well.

Guthneck said the best advice for both women and men is to know persons who abuse their partners are potentially dangerous and some are more likely to kill, especially when certain conditions exist.

Guthneck outlined these domestic violence homicide indicators:

• Threats to kill client, children or pet;

• Obsessed with weapons and/or has used them or threatened to use them on you;

• Prior choking or attempted choking of client;

• Obsessive jealousy and/or control of most of client’s daily activities;

• Client has threatened or actually separated from partner after living together;

• Partner’s unemployment;

• Partner’s depression and/or suicide attempts;

• Escalation of abuse;

• Acts of abuse in public;

• Partner follows or spies on client or leaves threatening messages;

• Repeated intervention by Law Enforcement; history of anti-social behavior;

• History of alcohol and/or drug abuse.

“Trying to stick it out when your partner is battering you is probably not going to work,” she said. “You can call law enforcement. When law enforcement is called, it is up to the officer  to arrest the person they believe is the ‘primary aggressor’ when there was or is imminent danger to the victim,” she said.