SUN Awareness Issue 2022

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The Awareness Issue

Steps to safety Domestic Violence Solutions recommends the myPlan app to those who need to make a plan to leave a dangerous situation [6]

BY TAYLOR O’CONNOR

NEWS

Judge orders more Twitchell water for fish [4]

ARTS

The art of depicting climate change [20]

EATS

Chuckwagon barbecues are back [24]

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YO U R O W N L I F E S T Y L E

OCTOBER 6 - OCTOBER 13, 2022 VOL. 23 NO. 32

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ctober is both Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For that reason, this issue is dedicated to both. Inside you will find a story about one organization that helps survivors leave dangerous, volatile situations and one about new mammogram technology at a local hospital. Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor speaks with Domestic Violence Solutions about the importance of having a detailed exit plan and protection orders that can be legally enforced [6] and Marian Regional Medical Center about the ways it’s making women more comfortable during breast cancer screenings and more [8].

You can also read about a lawsuit win over Twitchell Dam that sides with the needs of nature [4] ; the Ann Foxworthy Gallery’s new exhibit about climate change [20] ; and where to find a good ol’ fashioned chuckwagon barbecue [24].

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Safety is the priority

PHOTO BY TAYLOR O’CONNOR

Domestic Violence Solutions helps survivors leave dangerous situations with tools like a safety plan and exit strategy

BY TAYLOR O’CONNOR

A

lthough Santa Barbara County’s Domestic Violence Solutions conducts groundbreaking work to help survivors leave their situations and work by their side during recovery, the organization’s work isn’t something employees can shout from the rooftops.

“It’s a different area to work in because as an organization, we have a broad set of services [but] it’s never really something we are public about.

It has to be done in private and where safety is the paramount of our concern,” said Domestic Violence Solutions (DVS) Interim Executive Director of Operations Ken Oplinger. “For any sort of trauma, in order to process and deal with it, one thing that doesn’t help is a public spotlight on them.”

EASY TO REACH: For individuals unable to take or make phone calls, the myPlan app can help domestic violence survivors curate a Unlike other nonprofits, personal testimonies personalized exit plan with passcode protection, and the app has a “safe mode” that will show as a generic health and fitness app. aren’t an option for Domestic Violence Solutions to discuss the tools they provide or to help raise need to think about for their escape as well as any plans and keep it there so they can change it or funds, he added. Instead, DVS works behind the alter it as they need. I highly encourage it to many roadblocks. scenes to make sure survivors have the tools they “We want to know if they are in a home, who individuals,” she said. need. lives in the home—sometimes there’s children or Once someone has exited their home, plans “Every so often people go through it and they other family in the home,” she said. “We want to must be adjusted for their safety while at a domestic want to talk about it, and that’s great. We want know if they [other family members] are safe, or violence shelter, or in their secondary location. to have that opportunity, but we don’t want to if they would be an obstacle for the departure. We Restraining orders are extremely beneficial to force them. It’s up to the person if they want to want to know who is around them.” maintaining safety, but they go through the court share that story to help people out,” Oplinger said.

Next, advocates will encourage slowly making system and can take days or weeks to enact. In the “They need to be able to deal with it in their own copies of important documents and storing them meantime, individuals can have an emergency terms. We can’t help the community by showing outside of the home, like at work, in their car, or protective order in place—an option a lot of trauma, we can only say we are a resource that at a friend’s or neighbor’s house, Cubillo said. survivors are unaware of, Cubillo said. addresses that.”

DVS doesn’t encourage taking “An emergency protective order is very DVS responds to crisis the original documents because much like a restraining order, but for five to calls; provides emergency If you need help it’s can be a “clear red flag” to seven business days given automatically by law shelters for victims, in-house Domestic Violence Solutions’ 24the aggressor that the individual enforcement,” she said. “However, the sticky part counseling and job and life hour crisis hotline number for North is trying to leave. and downfall is these are only offered and granted skills courses, and courtroom County is (805) 925-2160 and has “If there are children to an individual when there has been a physical support; and partners with operators who speak English and involved, making sure to incident or criminal threats have been made.” several organizations to provide Spanish. The national number is schedule this exit around school An order in response to psychological and legal aid and animal fostering (800) 799-7233, has more than 200 time or after school or [during] emotional abuse is not likely to be approved. If languages available, and can connect services—all of which are seeing extracurriculars. Sometimes kids the person suffered a physical incident, it’s up to people with local organizations like a jump in demand, Oplinger are very aware of what’s going a judge, who can make a very “black and white” Domestic Violence Solutions. said. From June to the end of on in the home and that will ruling. The benefits of an protective order is it August 2022, Domestic Violence impact the exit plan,” she said. acts as a temporary restraining order until one Solutions’ northern Santa Barbara County office “Sometimes kids are very close to their aggressor. can be put in place, Cubillo said, which can take received 133 referrals and five medical referrals, If they are more on the side of the survivor, they up to a week. whereas South County received 25 referrals and may be making it a little easier to make that exit.”

“Even though there’s a restraining order, there two medical referrals, Director of Programs and An exit plan should be laid out clearly with a has to be a plan in or around if the aggressor Client Services Veronica Cubillo said. time frame, documents, and other details along hasn’t been served, or it remains difficult to “Our North County office is busier with with a backup plan in place in case the first enforce the order,” she said. crisis calls,” Cubillo said. “We get more requests strategy fails, Cubillo said. While working on Throughout the whole process, a domestic to respond out to these needs, and it directly their strategy or for those not ready to leave, DVS violence advocate will be with the survivor to impacts our availability and being able to serve checks in at times when it’s safest to speak and help them with any necessary court appearances, our clients at the shelter.” uses code words while having the conversation. and to help guide them in retelling their trauma, Cubillo said that detailed exit planning and “We won’t say we’re calling from DVS in case she said. It’s very difficult for victims to write emergency protective orders help ensure safety their phone is monitored or filtered. For those it’s what happened to them in a concise way. and distance for survivors from their aggressors. more tricky,” she said.

Those are two of several tools that can help a “It’s important for everyone to know this If they’re unable to take a phone call but can survivor leave a situation. matter’s very sensitive, and [these are] important use a phone or tablet, myPlan is an app available Crisis calls to the domestic violence hotline resources to utilize or know for their future or to domestic violence survivors that can help number initiates DVS programs and services, somebody else’s future,” she said. “It’s important curate safety plans, but it’s disguised as a health which can go one of two ways: The individual to know at least our crisis line number, and if and fitness app, Cubillo said. will have a clear-cut exit plan, and they will they have any questions to creating a safety plan, “Individuals outside of the domestic violence discuss how to fulfill that, or the individual does download the myPlan app to help guide them.” ❍ not know how to proceed and is unsure of what situations are able to do assessments to see help they need, Cubillo explained. They will then if they’re in danger. It’s available in different Taylor O’Connor can be reached at toconnor@ discuss the reasons for the call and what they may languages, and people are able to create safety santamariasun.com.

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The Awareness Issue

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T

hanks to an anonymous donor, Marian Regional Medical Center recently acquired new mammogram technologies to detect breast cancer at earlier stages.

The first is 3Dimensions Mammography System, available at Mission Hope Breast Imaging Center, takes high quality, clear images, from which radiologists can detect smaller cancers that would have slipped through the previous system, radiologist Ramanjyot Muhar said.

“I do think it’s one of the best machines out there on the market. I love looking at the images from here because they are beautiful, and any small abnormality can stick out here,” she said. “We take a sense of pride in detecting cancer early and have a positive outcome.”

Before, people would come in for a mammogram and the center used 2D imaging technology, which wasn’t as accurate and could bring up false positive cases, Muhar said.

“We would have called people back when it wasn’t anything. It raises a lot of anxiety, and [now] the amount of that has decreased. It reduces callbacks and increases detection of cancer,” she said.

The new imaging technology also makes it more comfortable for someone to have their screening done thanks to a curved paddle that sits on the breast tissue in a less compressive way and it detects more areas on the breast tissue, Muhar added.

“The machine we had was older and we were not visualizing abnormalities like we are now. Because we are a cancer-specific center, we need[ed] that machine,” she said.

Alongside 3Dimensions, the Brevera Breast Biopsy System is another new piece of equipment that shortens biopsy procedures and reduces the amount of breast tissue doctors have to take, Muhar said.

During previous procedures, doctors would have to take biopsy samples, leave the room, take an X-ray to confirm what they are looking for, and then come back to the patient. Now, Muhar and other radiologists can see what they are removing from the breasts and don’t have to leave the patient’s side or repeatedly remove more breast tissue for testing, she said.

“The other thing the techs tell me is it’s much easier for them to use, and we can see more patients during the day. With the ease of the machine for the technologists, we are able to see more patients and care for more people in the community,” Muhar said.

These are newer machines to the Central Coast

area, but not unique to Marian, she noted. Patients don’t have to go only to the center in order to receive this type of testing, rather it’s just that their location “caught up, finally.”

“This is something that we needed for a while, and we have it now and it’s great. It increases the confidence for the radiologist when looking at mammograms; technologists have mentioned they like working with the machine as well,” she said. “The biopsy portion really was something we needed here. The biopsy table we had before really needed to be upgraded.”

Muhar encouraged people to schedule a mammogram at 40 and every year following because it detects cancer at smaller sizes and improves prognosis. If younger people in their 20s or 30s feel something, Muhar said they should talk to their doctor to see if they need to get screened at the center.

“It’s better now than ever. Patients feel bad they had something, but at the end of the day you have to be thankful you are arriving at the time you did.”

Highlight • The Lompoc Public Library received a Building Forward Grant from the California State Library that will begin significant improvements at the main library branch, including a new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system.

The library’s current system is about 20 years old, with no air conditioning and poor circulation.

Along with improving the ventilation system, the funding will be used for renovating the youth restrooms at the main branch and make current restrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The grant from the California State Library is $403,442, and the city of Lompoc is providing an additional $201,721 toward the improvement projects. Both projects are expected to take place in 2023.

• Santa Barbara County’s Public Works Department and the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade are collaborating for the Refugio Road Trails Restoration Project—which connects Santa Ynez Valley Union High School and Samantha Drive along Refugio Road and includes opportunities for community members to participate. The first opportunity was Oct. 1 and the second is Oct. 8 at 8:30 a.m. in front of the high school. For details about the project and to sign up, visit sbco.mysocialpinpoint.com/refugiotrail. ❍ Taylor O’Connor wrote this week’s Spotlight. You can reach her at toconnor@santamariasun.com.