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University Daily Kansan, October 15. 1980
Shelter offers security to abused women
By KARI ELLIOTT Staff Reporter
Every 30 seconds a woman in the United States is physically abused by the man she lives with. This abuse may be part of a larger pattern of life- threatening assault with a weapon.
The assault often is not reported to because of shame or fear of mourning.
Women of any social, economic, group are potential victims of abuse.
In Lawrence, abused women can go to a shelter sponsored by the Women's Transitional Care Services. The Women's Transitional Care Services provide the women from any possible violence.
The center gets calls from women in all types of economic situations Patty Doria, a WTCS staff member said. Women are the most primarily by women with low incomes.
"The women here tend to have few financial options; the have no access to credit."
THE LAWRENCE SHELTER started helping battered women in 1978 mainly through telephone counseling.
In October 1878, WTCS opened a shelter house. In two years, the shelter has helped almost 200 women and 265 children. Doria said.
According to Doria, 85 percent of the women helped by this grass-roots organization are victims of severe violence. About 10 percent received
threats of violence to themselves or their children.
One of the battered women WTCS is helping is Jane, who is in her mid-20s and a mother of two children under five.
Jane came to Lawrence last week. Originally she had planned to go to one of the other shelter projects in Kansas, because her first choice was already full.
"I was hysterical. I needed somewhere to go, someplace to hide." Jane said. "The shelter is a place I can feel secure. The advocates (WTCs volunteers) are your friends and they listen to you."
In addition to three full-time staff members, WTCS has 25 volunteers working and answering telephones 24 hours a day.
"The advocates helped me through my emotional ups and downs," Jane said. "If there hadn't been a shelter to care, I wouldn't have had any place to go."
A battered woman may turn to friends and family for help, but friends and family may reach a point where they refuse to help her. Doria said.
"Friends are not willing to take on the responsibility of sheltering a battered woman." Doria said.
Furthermore, violence toward the wife may be directed toward the family or friends who are sheltering her, she said.
house. He could walk right through the door and beat me up." Jane said.
ALSO, THE HOME of a friend or
young person. Above all please
"My husband has always my parents"
In 1973, one of the first shelters in the United States was established in Phoenix, Ariz. Today there are more than 300 organizations throughout the country offering shelter or services to abused women.
In Kansas, there are eight cities besides Lawrence offering services to women: Kansas City, Topka, Manhattan, Warren, Salina, Wichita and Garden City.
It is sometimes difficult for a woman to leave her husband and go to a shelter. "I still love my husband, but I had to run for my life," Jane said.
Complicating the woman's interest is the general feeling of isolation. According to Doria, a phenomenon of wife abuse, the lack of attention he gives his wife's friends and employer.
"The husband may cause the wife to lose her job and friends. She's in a situation that is not good for her."
Jane's isolation was severe. According to Jane, she did not have a telephone, radio, television or newspaper in the house.
"My husband would not let me out of the house for weeks. In nearly three years the only place I went was the woman who that was with my husband," she said.
Only recently has wife beating been recognized as a social problem. Until late in the last century, there were laws stating that a husband could "control" his wife because she was his "property."
THESE LAWS no longer exist, but the physical and emotional abuse con-
"When my husband hit me, it was completely justified to him. He said, 'You are my wife, my property.''" Jane said.
Women have been conditioned to believe it is their duty to keep the home running smoothly. According to Dorla, women are more likely to marry if marriage is not working. It is her fault.
Doria said that the woman may receive even more abuse if the husband is arrested. "If he is mad then, he'll mad when he gets out of jail," she said.
IN THE CHRONIC abuse situation,
the woman can't do much but leave,
according to Doria. And this is what
Jane finally decided to do.
Jane said she had been married nearly two years before there was any
"At first he said he'd never hurt me.
Then he threatened to hurt me. Later he did slap, kick and even choke me. In the five years we were together he hit me on eight or nine times," Jame said.
More often it was threatened violence."
According to Jane, it was frightening
at Barbara's request that she was not a
natural human being.
"At one time he would ask, 'Why do you stay with me?' and later he would say, 'If you leave, I will hunt you down and kill you.' "Jane said.
In the last year her husband threatened to kill her three or four times, she said. "I'm just lucky to be alive." Jane said.
Jane is one of the 11 or 12 women the
helping or hiding, at the shelter now
Local nursing home under investigation
By JENNIFER LISTON Staff Reporter
A Lawrence nursing home is under investigation by the Kansas Bureau of Nursing Homes after two women complained that their mother was not receiving adequate care at the home.
Officials at Autumn Manor, 1800 W. 27th St., last week tried to evict Mary Harvey after they daughters, Elizabeth Shorter and Sharon Boggs, both of Lawrence, complained to the Douglas County Health Department about conditions at the home.
Shorter said yesterday that her 63-year-old mother was not being bathed regularly and was receiving hospitalization home, where she has been since June.
PRISCILLA GARBER, Douglas County Health Department's nursing homes consultant, said that the eviction was being postponed until the state agency completed its investigation.
Garber said she was helping in the investigations, which should be finished in the next few weeks. She said she would have several times with state officials.
Lisa Bright of the Autumn Manor administration, refused to comment on the investigation.
Shorter and her sister do not want to move their mother out of the
home, Shorter said, but instead want conditions improved at the nursing home.
"I care about my mother, but I also care about the other patients," she said. "They don't even do the basic things."
SHORTER SAID THAT she and her sister visited their mother at the nursing home almost every day.
Both are former nursing home employees and know what should be done for patients, Shorter said.
"I know what's going on," she said. "Everything I'm telling you, I saw for myself."
Shorter complained that her mother's food tray was cold by the time attendants fed her.
The two sisters had taken meals to their mother because she would not eat the nursing home food, she said.
She and her sister complained first to nurses and supervisors at the home about the conditions, she said.
"We went to the health department because things weren't being changed," Shorter said.
Garber said complaints about the eight nursing homes in the county were not uncommon. She said she found that residents actually were evicted from homes.
Garber investigates complaints about the nursing homes and decides if the complaints should be sent to the data agency to correct violations.
DANCE LESSONS
BILLY SPEARS COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCHE THE BEGINNING OF HONKY TONK TECH. OR WESTERN AND SWING DANCE 101. EVERY THURS. NITE FROM 7:00 to 9:30 YOU CAN GET FREE DANCE LESSONS. AND, IT'S 2 FOR THE PRICE OF 1 NITE 9:00-12:00 (TOO WELL LIQUOR ONLY). BILLY WILL BE THERE TOO.
804 W. 24th • 843-2000 LAWRENCE, KANS. 68044
SENIORS
HOPE Award Nominations are Wednesday and Thursday October 15 & 16
Help choose the 10 Semi-finalists.
Polling Places:
1. Wescoe Terrace
2. Information Booth
3. Kansas Union
4. Satellite Union
5. Summerfield Hall
4. Satellite Union
٢ . الشريعة الفرعية الملوكية
LECTURES BY:
IS THE WAR BETWEEN IRAN&IRAQ A WAR BETWEEN TWO NATIONS OR ...
DR. HAMID SAJADI of IRAN
& AHMAD JALILI of IRAQ
REASONS BEHIND THIS WAR.
ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL & IDEALOGICAL
THR.OCT. 16th 7:30 Pm
FORUM ROOM (STUDENT UNION)
Muslim Student Association
★ Pre-Nursing Club
When: 7:00 p.m. Oct. 15
Where: Trail Room; Union—Level 2
What: Speaker from UMKC on Intensive Care
Who: Everyone is invited!
Partially funded by Student Senate
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REG. 8.75 7.30 5.80
OFF 2.75 1.75 1.25
NOW $6.00 $5.55 $4.55
PITCHER OF COKE OR MILLER
$1 offer good Mon-Thar, O
THURSDAY, OCT. 16
7-9 P.M.
SATELLITE UNION
CONFERENCE ROOM
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BACKGAMMON
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CAMPUS SAFETY SERVICES
Will have an informational meeting 7 p.m. Oct.16 in Parlors A & B in the Kansas Union for persons interested in serving on the EDUCATION, CAMPUS ESCORT & LIGHTING COMMITTEE. Funded by Student Activity Fee
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