Speakers to Discuss Domestic Violence

Joyce Unsworth, 46, of Los Angeles, is one of the lucky ones. She lived to tell about her nightmare.

It lasted two long months, until one night, after her new husband had given her a particularly brutal beating, she fled from the house in terror.

“It was Halloween, and I was running from house to house, and I was wearing white, and I was covered with blood,” she said. “And people, when they opened their doors, they were laughing, they thought I was trick-or-treating.”

She ended up in a battered women’s shelter, where she put together a plan to leave her husband of two months. She never went back to him.

Unsworth, who suffers permanent nerve damage from the beatings four years ago, has this message for battering victims: Domestic violence is potentially fatal to the victim.

“Get the hell out, because he’ll finish you off,” she said. “The first time they hit you or threaten you, you should leave, because you might not make it if you don’t.”

She’ll tell her story Monday night to about 200 people from private organizations and public agencies at a special meeting aimed at combatting domestic violence. The event, open free to the public, is sponsored by the Los Angeles City Commission on the Status of Women. It will be at 7 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente’s Woodland Hills Medical Office Building, 5601 De Soto Ave., Woodland Hills.

The program was organized in part by Los Angeles Councilwoman Laura Chick. Speakers will include Detective Mitch Robins of the Los Angeles Police Department, who will discuss the LAPD’s new procedures for handling domestic violence calls, and a new special unit at the LAPD’s Van Nuys Division specializing in domestic violence.

Betty Fisher of Haven Hills Inc. Family Violence Center of the San Fernando Valley also will speak, as will Alana Bowman, a supervising deputy attorney with the city attorney’s office. Bowman will discuss her office’s role in prosecuting batterers.

Another scheduled speaker, Bonnie Lipton, a licensed clinical social worker at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Panorama City, said her facility sees several battering cases each week.

“We’ve identified it as a problem for years,” Lipton said. “But I think society at large is really beginning to identify this as a problem.”

One sign of that new awareness, she said, is that medical facilities in California are now mandated by law to report cases of suspected domestic violence.

There are several signs medical workers can look for to spot abuse, Lipton said, including physical injuries--especially when it appears that patients are lying about how they got hurt.

Other less obvious signs are complaints about headaches, hyperventilation, gastrointestinal symptoms, insomnia, and back and pelvic pain.

Also, battering victims are often shy and embarrassed and may cry when being treated, she said.

And victims are sometimes accompanied by their partners, who stay very close and attempt to answer all questions.

Victims can call a hot line for help, Lipton said. The number is (800) 548-2722.