Chula Vista Program Fights Home Violence

Police and social agencies have established Chula Vista’s first domestic violence counseling program to help stem the rising number of family beatings there, officials said.

Chula Vista police, South Bay Community Services and the Kaiser Permanente Community Service Program recently established the Chula Vista Intervention Team in the hopes that counseling service will cut down on the steadily rising rate of domestic beatings in the city, said Nancy Servatius, director of the South Bay Community Services program.

“The rate of domestic violence has been increasing in Chula Vista,” Servatius said. “Right now, there aren’t any programs in Chula Vista addressing these problems, and the question of domestic violence has been a persistent one since (our 20-year-old organization) has been here.”

The Intervention Team program, based at 315 4th Ave., works by having people referred from police and other agencies come in to talk to counselors about how to break the battering cycle, Servatius said.

Clients may come individually or as a family to talk to one of six counselors. They pay for counseling services based on income and size of their family, Servatius said.

“Most victims of domestic violence and offenders are reluctant to utilize the criminal justice system or seek help on their own to resolve their problems,” Servatius said. “We are trying to intervene early on in violent relationships and provide therapeutic ways of showing people how to avoid violence.”

In 1990, there were 1,738 incidents of family battering incidents reported to Chula Vista police, Servatius said. In 1991, the number had increased to 1,897.

This month a support group for battered women opened at the center and next month there are plans for another counseling group for male batterers, Servatius said.