It was a little less than a year ago that Franklin County switched domestic violence service providers.
There is still some work to be done, but Behavioral Health Services North, based in Clinton County, has made progress toward a takeover of the program that was in the hands of ComLinks for the previous 23 years.
ComLinks started its domestic violence program in 1987, but budget problems forced the agency to regroup in the fall of 2010 and start making plans to get rid of the program to focus on other initiatives.
Behavioral Health Services North was the only group to submit a bid to take over providing domestic violence services to Franklin County, and the organization officially took the reins on March 1, 2011.
Susan Kelly, head of BHSN's STOP Domestic Violence Program, said her organization has had four staff members working in Franklin County. It has office space in Malone and a staffer has office hours in Tupper Lake two days a week.
BHSN doesn't have a safe house in Franklin County yet. ComLinks had two - one in Saranac Lake and one in Malone - but the state decertified them after ComLinks relinquished control. Kelly said she's in the process of getting certification from the state for safe houses in Franklin County, but the procedure takes some time.
"We're working on that," Kelly said.
But for victims of domestic violence, finding a place to stay is often not the biggest issue, Kelly said.
Victims have all kinds of different needs. Sometimes they don't have transportation. Sometimes they just moved to the area, aren't familiar with the resources available and don't have a support system here. Sometimes they are more worried about themselves, and sometimes they have family members they feel they need to protect.
"A lot of time is talking with people on the phone, figuring out the next steps, or retracing their steps because what they tried before didn't work," Kelly said.
She said people often just need help to navigate through the system: figuring out how to get custody of their kids, how to get services, how to work their way through the courts. Her staff spends a lot of time in courts, supporting victims through the long process.
"You get a whole variety of things that people want," Kelly said.
Franklin County is 32nd out of 62 New York counties in terms of the number of domestic violence incidents reported per capita - about 255 incidents in 2010, when measuring against 2010 population statistics.
That's lower than 414 instances per capita in Essex County in 2010.
But Kelly said statistics don't always tell the whole story because people don't always report incidents. We hear about the murders, but we don't hear about it when someone is tortured at home, or blocked from going out to choir practice, or threatened with death, she said.
"All of those things we don't hear about until somebody tells you," Kelly said. "But most people don't share that stuff until it's really bad.
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Challenges
One of the largest challenges Kelly said her organization has faced in providing domestic violence service to Franklin County is its large size. In addition to that, there are many places where there's no cell phone coverage.
She said it's also been hard to get the word out about the switch in providers.
"It's just difficult in getting everybody understanding that we're the program, and we'll do the best we can," Kelly said.
Susan Kenna, a chaplain at Uihlein Living Center nursing home in Lake Placid, said that when she tried to find information on domestic violence services for someone she works with, she went online. She found that many listings still have ComLinks as the provider for Franklin County.
"It took me a while to find out the new resource," Kenna said. "It took me a good couple of hours."
She even tried ComLinks' old domestic violence hotline number, which is now disconnected.
A person who answered the regular phone line at ComLinks said they still get plenty of calls about domestic violence there, but they forward them all to BHSN.
When Kenna did figure out how to get in touch with the new organization, she said the people there were extremely helpful. But she said she'd like to see more community outreach to let people know about the new program.
"As a minister, I like to know what the resources are," Kenna said.
People have done some work putting out the word, Kelly said. They've distributed brochures, bathroom stall stickers and posters. But often people don't pay attention to them until they need the service, she said.
Some websites still list ComLinks as the domestic violence service provider for Franklin County. In some cases, Kelly said she's been trying to get those organizations to change the listing for some time, and in other cases, she just needs to know that it's still listed that way, so she can get it changed.
"I know that happens," Kelly said. "Things sometimes take longer than they should."
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Volunteers
Another challenge for BHSN is that it sometimes doesn't have enough staff to help with services. No one from Franklin County volunteers for the organization yet, but she said a training session starts this weekend if anyone is interested.
"We could really use some volunteers," Kelly said.
It requires 15 hours of training up front to volunteer, but after that, volunteers don't have to commit much time. They can make phone calls from home, pick up donations if they have a car, and do other small tasks like that.
She said they get volunteers of all ages, students and professionals, men and women.
"Most anybody can do that if they have a little bit of means," Kelly said.
People can find information about Behavioral Health Services North at www.bhsn.org. The organization's 24-hour hotline is 1-888-563-6904.