Originally Posted by Frosty
Just a quick update for those interested.
Since I started considering working with male rape victims, I have started working on some issues myself. I was gang raped 15 years ago while in the military. This was ongoing for about 11 months. This said, I have joined a group to help male sexual assault victims.
I know this is a sensitive issue for many, but I simply cannot ignore this part of my past. If I cannot turn my suffering into healing for somone else, then THEY won. I can only follow my heart.
As I have been doing this, I have been doing more research and discovering whatever I can find. One thing I do know is this. In the last year in my service area, 78 people were turned away from rape crisis center due to not having a single volunteer on staff. The 3 area local hospitals have no nursing staff trained in doing rape kits, followup, etc at all. The local police handle all of this. The rape kits are being done by nurses who are given direction by police officers. While I agree that male nurses taking care of female victims would be traumatizing, I was heartbroken to learn this information. I truly feel that a nurse, male or female, trained in forensics and SANE could provide a better healing environment than having the police have to discuss and direct nurses in front of the victim.
I still am not sure, as I am facing opposition on many fronts, nurses, educators, advocates. I just wish that society would redirect this energy into education others about the needs of male victims too.
Hi Frosty!
I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, a nursing student and a volunteer at a crisis center for victims of sexual assault. I wanted to reach out to you to let you know that I fully support your decision to do work that is meaningful to you. May I offer a few observations?
I got the feeling from your post that you are just now really beginning to deal with the fallout of being sexually violated. I would really urge you to keep researching the SANE program, but to not get too involved with it until you feel like you've healed as much as possible from your trauma...and then I'd wait another few years after that.
The other thing I want to tell you about is that you can play a vital role in the healing of others who have sexually assaulted in many ways. One way is to volunteer at a crisis center like I am doing. I handle phone calls from rape/incest victims. Another service of our agency is that some of our staff are what we call First Responders...they are called at all hours of the day and night to accompany the victims at the hospital so that they will have a supportive person to be there during the examination. We have a few men who are first responders so that in the event of a patient requesting a male, they will be there to serve them. If I were in your situation, I would consider doing this type of work first to see how you handle it and to see if this is indeed what you want to do.
I wish you the very best. I am sorry that you suffered being violated. You have a long journey to recovery, but a worthwhile one.
Adri
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