The Tri-County Women’s Centre has just hired a sexual assault nurse examiner co-ordinator.
In April. the women’s centre, located in Yarmouth, signed a three-year contract with the Nova Scotia Health Authority to provide
an expanded sexual assault nurse examiner service.
Bernadette MacDonald, the centre’s executive director, says they will be training 45 nurses under the SANE program.
They will be able to perform a physical examination, ensure forensic evidence is protected and provide crisis intervention and
emotional support.
“Victims have a very hard time coming forward because of the time and because of the location of services which may not always be in a place of what we call trauma informed.”
‘The nurses can perform a physical examination, ensure forensic evidence is protected in case the victim decides to make a criminal complaint,
and provide crisis intervention and emotional support.”
MacDonald says under the sexual assault nurse examiner program, the first of two specially trained nurses will respond within 1.5 hours, around the clock beginning March or April .
The program will be available to residents of Southwestern Nova Scotia, the Annapolis Valley, and the South Shore by March or April.
