SANE makes sense

Long before the culture at large began talking more openly about rape, long before people understood that rape is not an act of sex but an act of violence, Spokane was being educated in the nightmare of sexual assault. In the late 1970s, the South Hill rapist roamed the streets, violently attacking victims.

Law enforcement officials and the media educated themselves and the public on rape facts and myths. Advocates came forward to help victims with physical and emotional healing. The advocacy continued even after the 1981 conviction of Kevin Coe, ultimately identified as the South Hill rapist. Spokane’s sexual assault prevention and treatment programs were in place long before other cities awakened to the reality of sexual assault.

But Spokane still lacks one key program that would greatly help victims when they first go to the hospital after a sexual assault. It’s called SANE – Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime, SANE is based on the premise that “victims are often retraumatized when they come to hospital emergency departments for medical care and forensic evidence collection. Not only have victims had to wait for a long time to be examined, but those who perform the exams often lack training and experience in working with sexual assault victims and in gathering forensic evidence.”

Victim advocates have been trying for years to establish a SANE program in the Spokane-North Idaho region, as Spokesman-Review reporter JoNel Aleccia documented in a front-page story on Thursday. A fledgling program has begun. Seventeen emergency room nurses, from four regional medical centers, have received SANE training.

But SANE needs sustained funding, as well as a designated location in each medical center where rape victims can be assured privacy and compassionate care and where evidence can be collected, sorted and stored. A thriving SANE program will require support from the medical centers, health-care professionals, law enforcement, sexual assault prevention experts, community leaders and volunteers.

The region’s medical centers have branched out into bigger-city specialties, such as state-of-the-art cardiac care. It took courage and confidence to go there. The region is long overdue for a collaborative venture into an area that also requires courage and confidence – state-of-the-art care for our community’s sexual assault victims.