Rally participants call for broader support of sexual assault victims
Members of a small rally held Saturday want to see improvements to available support services for victims of sexual assault.
“Truro Hospital needs to wake up and realize what they’ve been doing is wrong… they need to change,” said protest organizer Annette Comeau. “It makes me feel very angry and just sickened by this happening to these people.”
As reported recently in the Truro News, a 22-year-old woman says she reported to the Colchester East Hants Health Centre emergency room she had been sexually assaulted. She was told she would have to travel to another hospital for treatment and was sent off with two pamphlets on sexual assault, she said.
Gathering on Willow Street, the protesters called for victim support services, such as the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program, to be available at every emergency room in the province. Such services should be funded by the province, instead of local nonprofits, according to protesters.
Margaret Mauger, who works at the Colchester Sexual Assault Centre, said help for sexual assault victims is an essential healthcare service.
“The onus shouldn’t be on the victim or the survivor to have to go out and seek that support,” said Mauger.
Presently, SANE services are available in New Glasgow, Antigonish and Halifax.
The victim’s mother, herself a nurse, previously said her daughter was not informed of the SANE service in nearby New Glasgow and had to travel farther than she needed. She added her daughter was not offered counselling or advice on preserving evidence in the event of a police investigation.
As a result, the Department of Health and Nova Scotia Health Authority launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident on last month. Annette Comeau was one of several protesters gathered on Willow Street Saturday asking for more support for sexual assault victims, to be funded by the province and made available in every hospital.