DES MOINES – ACCESS is an Ames based organization that works to help and provide support to survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, homicide and other violent crime. ACCESS reports that one out every four women and one out of every seven men experience some form of domestic violence.
Kristina Grigo, the Supervisor of all of ACCESS’s teams, said that one of the best ways to spot abuse in a relationship is to listen.
“The majority of signs are mental abuse and just listening to a friend or a coworker hear the controlling behavior of another partner to a friend and just being able to listen is what will show the red flags in a relationship. Every relationship has some form of controlling tactic but when it becomes scary and uncontrolled and there’s no equal power that’s when abuse is tended to be in the relationship” Grigo said.
Grigo said that victims of domestic violence can’t be forced to leave harmful relationships so the best way to offer help is sharing the resources available for victims.
“We get family members that call our crisis line calling about a daughter or a sibling or somebody in their life that they want to help we literally tell them give them our crisis line but we cannot force anything on them because already in a domestic abuse situation the victims power is already taken away and were here to empower them and to give it back.” Grigo
ACCESS has a domestic violence crisis line that victims can call to receive help. The crisis line number is 515-292-0519 or Toll Free 855-983-4641
To learn more about how to spot signs of abuse in a relationship or about the resources available to help victims visit ACCESS’s website.
