Dr. Adjua Smalls-Monte

100%.

And then the other thing that you want to do is have a to-go bag ready.

You want to have in there your ID.

You want to have money, enough money, because one of the reasons why people don't go is because they don't have enough money.

But start trying to build a secret account

bank account, you want to have documents.

Another reason why people don't leave is because of children.

What is going to be your plan for your children?

Where are you going to go?

Make sure you have your children's important documents too.

And you may not want to keep the originals.

You might want to keep only

copies at that time because if your partner starts to know you're trying to get out they can try to stop you the violence can escalate at that time as well a real strategy and then i want to say when you make that decision to leave you want to be definitive you want to leave go as far away as you can or to a very safe place and there are different um shelters that you can go they're not marked so that it is hard for anyone to find out where you are

And finally, that is when I would actually say after you have left, you want to maybe start the process of doing a restraining order because when you start that, people know that they're caught.

That's right.

So the first call I would make is to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

There's a sexual assault hotline in different cities like New York City, New York State.

There are also hotlines for domestic violence.

You can make a plan with a person that is there to help you.

If you also need to just get away in an emergency, you can go to a police precinct and say, I need to be safe.