You Are Not Alone
- MID-MAY 2006
- Français
Few events are as traumatic in a woman's life as sexual assault. A violent act is compounded by intense feelings of anger, helplessness, fear and an often strong sense that your story won't be believed. It can happen on a date, at home, to those in all walks of life and in all professions.
"We have a wide age range of clients, but most are young women from 16 to 25 who come to our Emergency Departments," says Mary Essar, Co-ordinator of the Niagara Health System's Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Treatment Program, Niagara. Knowing excellent care and compassion are shown to clients has kept Mary in the program since its inception in 1992, first as a nurse examiner, and then as co-ordinator in 2004.
What is the Sexual Assault Domestic Violence Treatment Program, Niagara?
The program, with specially-trained sexual assault nurse examiners, is focused primarily on the collection of forensic evidence, providing prophylactic treatment for sexually-transmitted diseases and pregnancy prevention. These options are most effective when implemented within 72 hours of a sexual assault. All clients are offered follow-up one-to-one counselling. Individuals who have been recent victims (within two years) of sexual assault or domestic violence can request counselling.
"Our nurses and doctors are amazing," says Mary. "They create a caring, non-judgemental, trusting environment and relationship with clients, because it is very important for our clients to feel that they will be believed."
Each year, about 90 clients come to the St. Catharines General Site ER to the comforting treatment room in a quiet area of the ER, decorated with soft furnishings and plants. "We take clients from all over Niagara," Mary explains. "If they go to an Emergency Department at one of our sister hospitals, they will be medically and psychologically assessed, given a taxi voucher if needed to bring them to St. Catharines General, and one of our six on-call nurses will be paged to respond." Follow-up is always done with clients, and two social workers specializing in trauma therapy provide one-to-one counselling. A paediatric counsellor is also available for child sex abuse victims.
Treatment for Domestic Violence
Treatment for domestic violence is a new addition to the program, starting in 2003. "We work with a great number of community agencies, so there are many entry points for clients, and our niche is to provide medical treatment and to document injuries," Mary says. "It's important to note that a woman always has a choice of involving the police, and if a client comes to one of our ERs to document evidence but is not yet ready to go to police, we won't contact the police. However, we will document those injuries in case the woman chooses to involve the police later."
Community Agency Support
Niagara has a very strong group of community agencies focusing on sexual assault that work together in a way now being presented as a model across Canada. The Sexual Assault Domestic Violence Treatment Program, Niagara delivers medical treatment/forensic evidence collection and works closely with the Niagara Region Sexual Assault Centre (offers counselling and education), along with Niagara Regional Police Services, Niagara Victim Crisis Support (offers support immediately following a crisis), Victim Witness Assistance (provides court/trial accompaniment), and a Crown Attorney representative. "We have the whole continuum of resources here for our clients," Mary says. "We work well together and follow established protocols, so there are no gaps in our clients' care."
In addition, the program networks closely with 33 other hospital-based sexual assault centres in Ontario. This network is finding that there are still a large number of victims of sexual assault who do not seek treatment or police services. "We estimate that only about 10% seek help, but it is impossible to say," Mary says. "We make a lot of presentations to raise community awareness through health care agencies, organizations for new Canadians, and vulnerable population groups. We work hard to refer between agencies so no-one falls through the cracks."
What do those clients say about the program? "As part of our follow-up, each client is asked about the care they received, and the feedback we receive is excellent," Mary says. "I trusted someone for the first time," said one client. Another commented that "the nurses were extremely helpful and compassionate. I couldn't have got through it without them. It was more than I could have expected." Still another recent client said "the sensitivity of the nurse was amazing. She was beyond compassionate."
There is comfort in knowing that compassionate care-givers will be available should a crisis like this occur. As services evolve, the Sexual Assault Domestic Violence Treatment Program, Niagara will be at the forefront, ensuring care and treatment continues.
For further details on the Sexual Assault Domestic Violence Treatment Program, Niagara, click here.