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Your Household Guide to Preparing for a Natural Disaster Photo via Pexels Most safety strategies are straightforward, but natural disasters are challenging to prepare for. Fortunately, there are ways to keep your home and family safe in the face of storms, fires, and other emergencies. Get ready for any natural disaster scenario with the guide from No Violence Now below . Use Home Safety Products Staying safe at home starts with acknowledging potential hazards. Consider these essentials when preparing for emergencies. ● Make a habit of checking smoke detectors and replacing batteries once or twice a year. ● Select fire extinguishers for home use and learn how to use them. ● Install — and frequently check — household carbon monoxide detectors ; power outages or damage to your home can cause carbon monoxide seepage. ● Research and read reviews on recommended products before purchase. Prep for Disastrous Weather Nature can severely impact your home and your family's safety. Prepare for big storms by protecting and equipping your home. ● Install shutters, check your roof and gutters, and repair them as needed to weatherproof against wind and rain . ● Clear dead trees before storm season; you can find local tree pruning companies that offer preventative and on-call services. ● Consider a battery backup system or generator for backup power during outages. Drill Survival Strategies Especially for families with children, preparing for disasters goes beyond stockpiling goods and clearing brush. First, develop an emergency plan and collect supplies, then practice regular drills as a family, so everyone understands what to do if disaster strikes. ● Make a fire escape plan and practice fire drills as a family. ● Set an evacuation plan for severe weather and fire scenarios. ● Gather a kit of survival supplies and keep essentials stocked; top up your reserves and check expiration dates every few months. Natural disasters may be unpredictable, but following this guide to getting ready can help you breathe easier during an emergency. Thinking ahead offers peace of mind, but it can also ensure your family's safety if disaster strikes.

Image Source: Unsplash What to Do When Only One Parent Needs Advanced Care There comes a time when seniors can no longer live safely and comfortably on their own. The realization can be challenging, but when one parent needs a different kind of care than the other, the transition to an assisted living or skilled care community can be even more difficult. Here, Emergency Preparedness and Violence Mitigation presents guidance on what you can do to ease the process. Help Them Accept the Situation There's no way to get around it: your parents will need to accept that they may no longer live as close as they want, as most assisted living and memory care communities don't have double-occupancy rooms. While your parents may be able to live in the same community, they may not be allowed to live in the same apartment or room. In many cases one spouse will continue living at home while the other moves to a care center. This can be a challenging and emotional decision to make. Still, it's important to realize that it may be the only viable option if one spouse requires specialized care. Be Proactive It's essential to be proactive when it comes to finding the right community. Planning makes it possible for your parents to tour senior living communities together, find a place that offers the best accommodation options, and share their desires with the family. Also, being part of the decision can help them become comfortable with the idea of one spouse moving to a care community. Also, be proactive about screening potential caregivers for issues of neglect and elder abuse . Although we don’t like to think these issues could happen to our loved ones, the reality is that it happens. In fact, 10% of older Americans have been abused, and that statistic rests only on abuse that has been reported. Fully research any facility you are considering before you relocate anyone to their care. Consider the Needs of Both Parties You'll likely focus on looking for a community that meets the needs of the parent requiring advanced care. However, it can also be easy to overlook the needs of the partner who requires less assistance. Ensure you pay attention to both parents’ needs. Social needs are as crucial as physical needs, so ensure they can socialize, take part in activities, and run errands on their own. Figure Out Finances Finances are another aspect you need to work out in this situation. Remember, Medicare doesn’t pay for long-term care, though Medicaid may be one option, or there may be an option for VA benefits. But there are a lot of hoops to jump through here, and your parents need to be prepared for a lot of paperwork. You can also discuss possible courses of action like selling the couple’s home to cover expenses. If they agree, you need to take inventory of their current assets, including cash savings, retirement accounts, securities, life insurance policies, and mutual funds. To figure out how much selling their property will yield, calculate equity by subtracting the remaining mortgage amount (if any) from the home's market price. The remaining amount is what your parents will earn (minus real estate fees and taxes) upon the sale of their home. Step Back When You’re Feeling Stressed It goes without saying that this is a stressful and often overwhelming time for your parents and you. Make sure you take some time for self-care; it’s easy to forget about yourself when you’re caring for others. When you feel stressed or emotionally drained by the experience, take a moment to step back, pause for a moment , and refocus. Keep your priorities in mind as you work through the options. And if something doesn’t sit right with you, listen to your gut. Our instincts are often right on track when our minds get in the way. The Bottom Line Figuring out nursing care for one parent can be a challenge. After all, no one wants to be separated from their life partner. Still, you can do a few things to ensure both seniors are safe and comfortable in the transition by being proactive in looking for facilities, considering their needs and wants, and securing financing early on. And be aware of the stress this decision evokes on your parents and on you. When you see tensions rising, encourage everyone to pause, breathe, and resume after a much needed break. This is an emotional process, and to treat it as anything less is unfair to everyone involved. Author Andrea Needham

What is violence? The definition of violence varies widely; in the context of intimate pattern relationships, violence is the most defined as an act carried out with the intention or perceived intention of causing physical pain or injury to another person (Douglas, 2010). The general definition of violence includes physical violence, sexual violence, and physical and sexual violence (Barnett, Miller-Perrin, and Perrin, 2005). Domestic violence is one of the increasing public health concerns that affect all people, but the most vulnerable population of this health concern is women and children. The prevenance domestic violence in the world estimated by the world health organization as follow, a complete intimate partner violence range 20% in the Western Pacific, 22% in high-income countries, and Europe 25% in the WHO(World Health Organization) regions of the Americas to 33% in the WHO African region, 31% in the WHO western Mediterranean area, and 33% in the WHO South-East Asia region. However, the report of these data only the report collected by the world health organization, some of the collection methods used in finding the reported document from governing official and health organization. Unfortunately, domestic violence could be an under-covered crime. Most of the victims will not be able to say enough to the criminal; the incidence will cause additional risk. Criminal could be the family members, governing officials, or powerful individuals who will have power over the victim to cause the problem even complicated. Simultaneously economic difficulty in initiating the crime investigation and its character of systemic application of the violence the women and children will always be the target of the crime. Especially, the main reason this article focused on domestic violence against women and children is their vulnerability prevalence range higher than others. Safe reporting of violence, retrieved from world health organization What are the main characteristics of domestic violence? Domestic violence could be systematic, which means it will hide the violence from the public view and hard to investigate; when domestic violence is associated with a family member or caregiver, the issue will create fear, normalization of abuse, and shame. Also, Intimidation, low self-esteem, lack of resources, disability, immigration status, cultural context, children, and love for the partner are some of the issues that make an investigation and reporting difficult (National domestic violence hotline, 2020). Each of these elements will be a crucial factor that helps the criminal could hide from justice. Most of the time, the fear of financial dependency is the victim of the violence due to their childcare and economic dependence on the child's father. The fear of filing a charge against the criminal covered as the investigation could lead the violent to a jail sentence or imprisonment. The spouse of the child-mother develops a fear of separation and economic difficulty to take care of her family. Therefore, giving up the report against violence will hide the crime. The character of a criminal. Based on the circumstance of an issue, the criminal will not stop violating others' rights. When we look up to the domestic violence related to family group intimidation, the dominant group will be continuous with its character as the subordinate weaken oneself to normalize the issue—developed this character due to fear and dependency. In some cultures, women are inferior to men, who will limit their rights based on the cultural description. For example, childcare is solely the responsibility of women as a universal norm during child growth period the men will take the dominance character to not the support. Due to the financial obligation fall on the men's side, he will take that as a guaranty for his spouse's inferiority which the spouse also takes the option as the last chance to survive. On the other hand, the man could be married to other women anytime, even while he is in a relationship which the option is limited for women. The separation after marriage and children is tough for women than men; these norms make women fail to report abusive relationships.