Get Healthy, Carson City: Domestic Violence Awareness Month – Teen Alert

Many people think of domestic violence like a scene out of a movie. Wife does not cook her husband’s dinner to his satisfaction and he smacks her across the face leaving a bruise that she needs to cover with sunglasses the next day. Hollywood makes domestic violence seem like it would be obvious if it was happening to someone you knew.

The sad reality is that most of the time domestic violence is not obvious. The victims we do not usually hear about are the teen boy or girl who seems to have everything, but no one realizes their partner is secretly hitting or mentally abusing them.

According to an article published in the journal Pediatrics, nearly 20.9 percent of female high school students and 13.4 percent of male high school students report being physically or sexually abused by a dating partner. Additional research reports that 57 percent of teens know someone who has been physically, sexually or verbally abused by a dating partner (www.ncadv.org).

In the Carson City Adolescent Health Education Program offered through Carson City Health and Human Services (presented at Carson High School), we not only address sexual health but healthy relationship skills. While you might think healthy relationship skills are a natural thing for all of us to learn, this is not true.

Good communication is learned through our adult and peer role models. If there is a lack of positive examples of good relationship and communication skills, a future heathy relationship for that individual might be hard to achieve. If the only examples a person sees when they are frustrated or distressed is to act out abusively or be victimized, that might become their relationship norm.

As a community, we all need to do our part through education and awareness to prevent domestic violence for everyone. The Carson City Advocates to End Domestic Violence (AEDV) works collaboratively with Carson City School District, providing interactive presentations to students in middle and high school. The teen dating violence presentations help students identify the dynamics of healthy relationships and the “red flags” of abusive relationships. The classes are age-appropriate and structured to provide knowledge and prevention about dating violence while offering practical strategies to avoid or leave abusive relationships. If you would like more information or help for yourself or someone else who is experiencing domestic violence, please contact AEDV at 775-883-7654, which is its 24-hour crisis hotline. You can also visit its website at www.aedv.org or follow it on Facebook at www.facebook.com/advocatestoenddomesticviolence. AEDV is the largest domestic violence shelter in Northern Nevada and offers many programs to help victims and survivors of domestic abuse.

For information about programs and services available to you through Carson City Health and Human Services, check out our website at www.gethealthycarsoncity.org, follow us on Twitter at @CCHealthEd, “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cchhs, follow us Instagram at @gethealthycarsoncity, call us at 775-887-2190 or visit us at 900 E. Long St. in Carson City.