Mental Health America of Hawaii<\/a> —<\/p>\nOn June 28, 2010, MHA-Hawai`i presented a Brown Bag Mental Health Seminar called \u201cUnderstanding the Effects of War.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Michael Broderick, Lead Judge of the Special Division of the Family Court, which includes domestic abuse cases, explained that the most common theme among military families experiencing domestic violence is, \u201cWhere has he gone?\u201d They are wondering why the soldier they love has come back, seemingly a different person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not hear this about any other category of person in my court.\u201d He quoted:<\/p>\n
* \u201cHe was one type of man before he was deployed, and he is another type of man after he has returned.\u201d<\/p>\n
* \u201cI don\u2019t recognize my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
* \u201cHe never acted that way before he went to war.\u201d<\/p>\n
* \u201cEver since he came back from Iraq, he has not been himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
* \u201cI want my husband back.\u201d<\/p>\n
* \u201cHe is an angry, depressed, suicidal person; he was never any of those things before he went to war.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is the Judge\u2019s observation that war has significantly damaged the vast majority of men who appear on his domestic abuse calendar.<\/p>\n
He explained that 5% -10% of the domestic abuse cases in his court involve soldiers; that equals to 15 a week, or about 720 a year on Oahu alone.<\/p>\n
His is a civil, not a criminal calendar, which means the cases involve physical abuse, malicious property damage or extreme psychological abuse. These range from relatively mild (\u201cshoved me in the shoulder\u201d) to very severe (\u201cthrew me down the stairs, kicked me in the ribs, put a knife to my throat, and said, \u2018If you ever leave me I will kill you.\u2019\u201d)<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately,\u201d said Judge Broderick, \u201cmost of the allegations involving soldiers are on the severe end of the spectrum.\u201d<\/p>\n
These severe cases involve choking, punching, threatening to kill the spouse\/girlfriend, breaking down a locked bedroom door, calling 50 times a day, and sending 100 text messages over 48 hours. Many involve romantic jealousy \u2013 the accurate, or inaccurate, belief by the man that his wife\/girlfriend is involved with someone else – and this often involves the period while the soldier was at war.<\/p>\n
Children are often part of the restraining orders Judge Broderick issues, because, he said, \u201cIt has become crystal clear that children who are exposed to domestic violence, who hear it or see it, are damaged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Timing of when the military domestic violence cases come to his court is important. \u201cThese cases,\u201d continued Judge Broderick, \u201ccome to court almost always within days or weeks of the soldier returning from the war.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the more deployments, the more severe the abuse,\u201d he reported.<\/p>\n
One piece of good news: the Judiciary has recently convened a committee to look into the development of a Veterans Court, which would divert soldiers who are accused of certain crimes into treatment rather than sending them to jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thanks to Cory Harden for sharing this information: From Mental Health America of Hawaii — On June 28, 2010, MHA-Hawai`i presented a Brown Bag Mental Health Seminar called \u201cUnderstanding the Effects of War.\u201d Judge Michael Broderick, Lead Judge of the Special Division of the Family Court, which includes domestic abuse cases, explained that the most … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Trauma of war haunts families in Hawai’i”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2409],"class_list":["post-7644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-movements-resistance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7645,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7644\/revisions\/7645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}