Safety
[See several printable types of information sheets in Patient Materials.]
Assessing safety
- Where is your partner now?
- How safe do you feel returning home today?
- Do you have a plan for when you don’t feel safe?
- Has the violence been getting worse, more often, or scarier lately?
- Has your partner ever choked you, or injured you while you were pregnant?
- Has your partner ever injured someone outside the home?
- Has your partner ever injured a pet or destroyed items you cared about?
- Does your partner have an alcohol or drug abuse problem?
- Is there a gun in the house?
- Are the children in danger?
- Does your partner know you are planning to leave?
- Has your partner threatened to kill you/him/herself?
[Download danger assessment tool]
Increase safety at home
- avoid kitchen and bathroom
- remove gun/weapons from home
- put a phone in a room you can lock
- plan an escape route
- make a signal with neighbors to call the police
Increase children’s safety
- teach them to call 911 and know their address and phone number
- make a code word with them to call 911
- plan an escape route
- teach them not to get in the middle of a fight
Pack an escape bag for you and children, leave it with a friend
- clothes
- money
- cash, credit & ATM cards
- change for pay phones
- checkbook, bank account #s
- pay stub
- keys (house, car, office, safety deposit box)
- medications/glasses
- phone, phone calling card, address book, hotline numbers
- toiletries, diapers
- pictures, keepsakes, toys, books
- copies of identification and important papers
- birth certificates, passports, soc. sec., immigration
- driver’s license
- marriage/divorce/custody papers/restraining orders
- titles, deeds, car registration
- health insurance cards/important medical records
- school records/immunization (shot) records
- journal/photos of abuse
- photos of abuser to give to school, office security, etc.
[Adapted from National Center for Victims of Crime and Womenshealth.gov]