Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114243

Deborah Parnis, PhD, Department of Sociology, Trent University, West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, Canada, 705 741-4989, dparnis@trentu.ca and Janice A. Du Mont, EdD, Centre for Research in Women's Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 790 Bay Street, 7th Floor, Toronto, ON M5G 1N8, Canada.

By the late 1970s in Ontario, Canada, the provincial government had established a comprehensive strategy for addressing both the health care and legal needs of sexually assaulted women. Responding to protests against poor medical attention and deplorable conviction rates for offenders, over 30 hospital-based Sexual Assault Care and Treatment Centres were established across the province. These Centres, staffed around the clock with specially trained nurses, physicians and nurse examiners, have become the centralized locations for the simultaneous health care treatment of and forensic evidence collection from sexually assaulted women. Over two decades have passed since their introduction, and yet, very little evaluative research has been conducted to determine the impact of this institutional medicolegal response. The purpose of our qualitative and quantitative study was to investigate this two-pronged health care/evidence collection practice from the perspectives of sexually assaulted women who have undergone forensic medical examinations at these Centres. We conducted 22 semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with women of varying ages and socio-economic and ethno-racial statuses, representing both rural and urban regions. In this presentation, we will describe our findings on the experiences and opinions of this post-assault response from those most directly affected.

Learning Objectives: By its closing, the participant in this session will be

• informed of one hospital-based specialized model of care provided to sexually assaulted women.
• able to describe the process of medical treatment and evidence collection using a rape kit.
• able to recognize the prioritization of sexually assaulted women’s post-assault needs and articulate these in relation to service provision considerations.

Keywords: Sexual Assault, Women's Quality Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation