By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Domestic Violence can leave scars that aren't visible just as much as the ones that are, according to Sue Wray with BrightHouse.
Most of us think of physical, when we think of domestic violence," Wray said. "That's often what involves law enforcement, but there's a lot of different ways that people can be abusive within a relationship. Trying to demean your partner. Sometimes people do that to keep them in place, to keep them around. Offering that kind of criticism over and over is really hard on people's self-esteem. Sometimes people take paychecks, so there's no financial stability. They can't get away even if they want to."
Unfortunately, it isn't just intimate relationships that can see abusive behavior.
"We have a lot of people come in, because, one right now I think is particularly sad, they have to file a protection order against their child, because they are elderly," Wray said. "They are being abused in different ways. It's any kind of intimate partner or family relationship. We can help you with that."
Brighthouse also sees one of its missions as teaching those early in intimate relationships what they should look like.
"One of the things we've just done is we meet with the HutchCC athletes and talk about consent, what happens if they need some help and healthy relationships and what kinds of things they don't have to put up with in a healthy relationship. We present safe dating curriculum to eighth graders. I think we presented to every eighth grader in USD 308 a week or so ago. In addition, we're just starting to work on a curriculum, it won't be really around dating, but for healthy relationships, for sixth graders."
The idea is, if you feel unsafe, no matter how young or old you are, BrightHouse has resources to help you. It all can start with a call to their 24-hour crisis line. It's at 620-663-2522.