By Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul

In their lifetime one in three women and one in six men will experience some form of violence committed by an intimate partner.

The growth of violence in America is alarming, and this statistic is even more disturbing because acts of violence between intimate partners too often go unreported. One in five women experiences sexual violence, one in four experiences physical violence, and one in eight is stalked. A National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that more than 16 million women and 11 million men have claimed that they experienced a form of intimate partner violence (IPV) before the age of 18.

That’s why we have introduced legislation, A2007. This legislation  requires healthcare professionals to perform violence screenings and to take action to prevent perpetrators of IPV from obtaining copies of a victim's medical records. The legislation would also require professionals to document the findings from each screening in the patient’s medical record. Any healthcare professional who documents findings of IPV in a patient’s medical record, must advise the patient that they may take appropriate action to prevent the disclosure of their medical record to the perpetrator.

An unrelated piece of our sponsored legislation, AJR139, also introduced last week, calls for New Jersey to join governments around the world and designate the last full week of September as “Deaf Awareness Week”. 

Approximately 850,000 New Jersey residents have varying degrees of hearing loss ranging from mild to profound, including individuals who are born deaf and people who encounter late-stage hearing loss. We are fortunate in New Jersey to be home to many world-class institutions and programs for people who are deaf. These institutions include the Union Street School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Hackensack, the Bruce Street School for the Deaf in Newark, and the Marie Katzenbach School for the Deaf in Trenton.

It is fitting for our state to celebrate the culture, heritage, and language of people who are deaf and to increase public awareness of deaf issues by designating the month of September as “Deaf Awareness Month” and the last full week of September as “Deaf Awareness Week” in New Jersey. 

Last year, our sponsored legislation, A1673, was signed into law creating the "Right to Mental Health for Individuals who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing Act". The Act requires that mental health services be provided in a manner that is culturally affirmative and linguistically appropriate, using the client’s primary method of communication.

We want to remind LD11 residents that we are conducting a PAS-1 Workshop today, Oct. 8, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Neptune Senior Center, where our staff will assist residents in completing their applications for New Jersey’s property tax relief programs, ANCHOR, Senior Freeze and Stay NJ. 

Our Constituent Services Team also will be available to provide one-on-one assistance with PAS-1 applications at our Mobile Office Hours on the following dates and locations: Friday, Oct. 9 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Don & Marie Curtis Senior Center, 615 West Park Ave. in Oakhurst; Tuesday, Oct. 13, 10 a.m. to noon at the Long Branch Senior Center; Thursday, Oct. 15, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Asbury Park Library; and Tuesday, Oct. 20, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Neptune Senior Center.

For a full list of PAS-1 Workshops and Mobile Office Hours, please visit our website, donlonpeterpaul.com and go to the Events page.

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