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Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Friday, March 12, 2010
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Wild Iris vows to continue despite funding cut |
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Friday, 25 September 2009 |
By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Susi Bains is the Crisis Counselor/Educator in the Mammoth Lakes office of Wild Iris. “I got involved in domestic violence counseling by volunteering a couple of years ago, and I found it to be a passion,” she said. She feels fortunate to get paid to work for the cause now.
The permanent cuts in state funding amounted to 50 percent of the domestic violence program budget for Wild Iris, the only local shelter serving domestic abuse victims in the Eastern Sierra. The domestic violence program now operates with an annual budget of $200,000.
Yet, Susi Bains, who has been the Crisis Counselor/Educator for Wild Iris in Mammoth Lakes since April, said that clients have so far experienced no impact in services, and hopefully will not.
That’s because Wild Iris has made up for the cuts through employee attrition, wage freezes, furlough days and reduced office space.
“We’ve also had some cuts to employee benefits,” Bains said.
“It’s one of those budget cuts that’s definitely a concern,” said Sergeant Karen Smart of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department. In her 23 years on the force, she has been pro-actively involved in domestic violence awareness, educational and prevention efforts.
“I’m glad they think they’re still going to be able to pull it off. We would miss them as a player if they had to significantly reduce their services,” Smart added.
Bains said there will be no change in the shelter services Wild Iris provides, though victims who face immediate danger will receive priority before all others are served.
“I think the biggest impact has been to the organization itself in terms of having fewer people, fewer resources,
and honestly, having more clients,” Bains said.
“We’re going to be here to support them, to let them know what some of their resources are, and to be their advocate through the process, whatever decision they make.”
Shelter in the Eastern Sierra
Wild Iris is the only domestic violence shelter serving the Eastern Sierra with core offices in Bishop and Mammoth, and satellite offices in Coleville/Walker and Lone Pine, and reaching from Death Valley north to the Nevada border.
The 24-hour hotline, staffed by certified peer-crisis counselors, is often the only link to help for victims in immediate crisis. Counselors provide emotional support, information and referrals for victims.
Bains said a misconception is that domestic violence occurs primarily among people of lower income or education levels. “That’s absolutely not true. Abuse crosses all lines of income, race, religion, education. It’s a really complicated issue.”
Wild Iris Executive Director Lisa Reel said abuse also crosses lines of gender and sexuality. “Intimate partners can be same-sex partners as well,” Reel said.
Statistics show that victims will leave and return to abusers anywhere from 8 to 9 times on average before they choose to leave permanently. “There’s a variety of reasons for that: It’s economic, it’s family pressure, fear is a big part.”
“Wild Iris doesn’t want to see victims stay in a relationship because they don’t know where to go or where to seek help,” Reel added.
In the year prior to the governor’s funding cuts, Wild Iris responded to 297 calls through its 24/7 hotline and provided 685 counseling sessions and 165 emergency bed nights to 21 families.
The agency also offers emergency safe haven services, assistance in obtaining restraining orders in cases of physical, sexual and mental/emotional abuse by an intimate partner, and food and clothing.
“Our job is to empower them with enough information and resources so that they can make an educated decision on what their next step should be,” Bains said.
Funding for California’s 94 shelters comes from the Department of Public Health’s Domestic Violence Program. Since the governor’s line-item vetoes on July 28, Reel said three have closed.
“We also receive funding from the California Emergency Services,” Reel said. “That’s sustaining our domestic violence program.”
Wild Iris now operates their domestic violence program with an annual budget of $200,000. They do receive private foundation funds, including Blue Shield of California.
More calls than ever before
“All of us know that we’re getting more clients now than we ever had,” Bains said. “And we certainly have to attribute a lot of that to the economy.”
Although she doesn’t have official numbers, she believes the recession has affected the number of victims seeking help. “Our Web site states that we average 2,000 calls a year for Inyo and Mono counties combined for Wild Iris.”
Those calls could be either for crisis or basic information, and don’t necessarily translate into increased calls to law enforcement agencies, she said.
“Compared to last year, it looks like they’re pretty much the same,” said Corporal Robyn Delaney, jail supervisor at the Mono County Sheriff’s Department.
There were 26 domestic violence cases in 2008, she said, including simple battery as well as corporal injury under the law, and 22 to date this year.Those numbers do not include the MLPD’s.
Wild Iris has an agreement with both the Mono and Inyo county sheriff’s departments – as well as the Bishop and Mammoth Lakes’ police departments – to refer victims to Wild Iris any time they take domestic violence calls.
“One of the big things we wanted to do was coordinate the effort between them and law enforcement,” said MLPD Sgt. Smart. “The advocacy part of the process is really important for victims. They need to know there’s someone to walk them through it, and that there is a way out.”
Before the outreach efforts of Wild Iris, for example, it was a challenge for law enforcement officers to understand victim psychology.
“It’s this learned helplessness,” Smart said. “It’s strange to law enforcement, because we’re all Type A personalities. So the idea that we’re going to meet people out there who understand they’re in a bad situation, but can’t seem to figure out a way to get out of it, can sometimes be very confusing.”
Smart said Wild Iris helped law enforcement understand the dynamics.
“Once we learned that, we were able to take that onto the street and be more effective and less frustrated. It’s a cultural thing with law enforcement.”
And they’ve come a long way.
“The relationship was pretty adversarial back in the late 70s and early 80s when the whole advocacy got started. I was working with guys who didn’t think Wild Iris had a role,” Smart said.
Wild Iris also works closely with the District Attorney’s office.
Violence linked to the economy?
Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze told the Inyo Register in July that violence in all forms is on the rise in the county and can be linked to the economy, but MLPD Chief Randy Schienle did not have an opinion on whether domestic violence calls have increased since the recession.
“We have a lot of domestic violence here all the time,” he noted. “We get a disproportionate share of that because there’s a lot of drug and alcohol use in the community.”
Smart said that the recession is definitely a stressor in everyone’s life, but domestic violence is a dynamic that’s much more ingrained.
“People do this because they have this psychological bent toward power and control. The bad economy could be an excuse for them, but no, it’s present regardless of what the economic status of the family is.”
Linking the two is like comparing apples and oranges, she said.
Bains said it’s too early to tell whether the ongoing recession has influenced whether more victims are opting to stay in abusive relationships rather than face financial risk or strain by leaving.
“I think the bigger indicator is that more victims are calling us. Whether or not they choose to leave again is going to be their decision,” she said.
“We’re going to be here to support them, to let them know what some of their resources are, and to be their advocate through the process, whatever decision they make.”
The most dangerous time
The most dangerous time for a victim is when the choice is made to leave an abuser.
“It’s about power and control,” Bains explained. “So when the victim makes the decision to leave, the abuser is losing control of that person. That’s when that mind set goes into play, where they don’t want to lose the control.”
Wild Iris has completely confidential, secure houses to offer victims. Once a victim is safely placed, the group works to connect the victim with family or friends away from the abuser, if that is the choice of the victim.
Rehabilitation is possible for abusers, but there must be an extraordinary incentive to do so. Generally that means getting caught up with law enforcement.
“Most of them aren’t forced to take a look at what they’re doing until they meet the legal system,” Bains said.
“They only begin to change when they’re forced to. Most abusers will tell you that they never thought they would be arrested or cause a black eye or break a bone.”
After an arrest or a conviction, many abusers attend mandatory anger management classes at mental health facilities such as the Alpine Centers in Bishop and Mammoth – both of which offer batterer intervention classes.
Wild Iris welcomes volunteers, especially in the wake of recent state funding cuts. Bains herself started out as a volunteer. Junior volunteers will host a donation drive on Oct. 3 with a bake sale at businesses in the Sierra Center Mall, Minaret Mall, and the Village at Mammoth.
Beginning next year, Domestic Violence Awareness Month will be recognized in May instead of October.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 06 October 2009 )
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