Domestic Violence Services Offer Help to All Involved

Domestic violence continues to be a prevalent issue in communities around the country – and even right here in our area. Tiffany Parker with SSM Health Domestic Violence Services says the numbers were down a bit in 2017, but they can still do better. 

She points out that “in 2017, we had 62 individuals who we lost due to domestic violence. 45 of them were victims, where they were the person identified as the victim in the case. And then also we had some homicide incidents with perpetrators who committed suicide, and there were 13 of those.”

Parker adds that “our homicide report did go down in numbers, it was higher last year – I
believe it was 62 this year and 73 last year. So we went down a little bit, but
that doesn’t mean that we’re not having more violent incidents in general.”

ASTOP and the Domestic Violence Services also work with everyone that may have been involved in the situation. 

Parker says “a lot of our programs that relate to domestic violence and sexual
assault really centralize only on victims and their children. And while that’s
very important and near and dear to our hearts, it’s also really important that
we stop the cycle – so we work with the people who struggle with those abusive
behaviors as well. So we do care about those homicides or those suicides that
happen against the perpetrator as well.”