Since the September creation of a Sexual Assault Response Team, it has been used 32 times -- meaning that on average, one victim a week sought medical treatment after a sexual assault in Centre County.
When a victim comes into a health center after a sexual assault, a team with a rotating roster of police officers, specially trained nurses and sexual assault counselors or advocates are automatically paged by the medical staff. They are available 24 hours a day.
Victims can tell their stories to the advocate, the officer and the nurse all at once, and they are told about counseling and other available services. Before SART existed, victims were asked if they wanted an advocate, but many were unsure of what advocates could do, said Shirley Bishop, a SART advocate who works at the Centre County Women's Resource Center. Now the team is automatically called and arrives as a group to explain the services it offers. Every victim so far has agreed to speak with the entire team, Jones said, but victims can choose to speak with only certain team members.
"The benefits are that people are being more trained to be more victim-friendly, more victim-sensitive," Bishop said. University Health Services, Centre Community Hospital and Philipsburg Hospital all are part of the program. All three parts of the team arrive within 45 minutes of a call to give confidential care to victims. Although it is too soon to be sure of the legal impact SART has had, Jones said she hopes interacting with the team will make victims more comfortable working with police on an investigation to charge the assailant.
"The only way to really impact whether or not people will stop doing this is to hold people accountable," Jones said. All police officers in the county are now trained to act as part of SART. "One of the goals that we're striving for is that every law enforcement officer is familiar with the protocol," said Penn State Police Services Officer Clifford Lutz, who has worked with SART since the planning stages.
Maureen Jones, a SART nurse who works at the Center for Women Students at Penn State, said students should know SART is free for them no matter what health center they go to. The university pays for medical care and evidence collection, and the victim's parents are not notified.
SART has its roots in the Centre Abuse Response Team, the group of registered nurses who took their own initiative to become trained to respond to sexual assaults. They are called Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners, or SAFE nurses. SAFE nurses go through more than 80 hours of special training, learning how to work with victims and collect evidence that can be used in a criminal investigation.
"When you understand what it is you need to look for and are able to use advanced equipment and forensics techniques, what you have is a more solid case," Jones said. She said the sooner victims seek treatment, the better. Victims can receive care for any physical injuries from the assault, and nurses can collect evidence for investigation if the victim decides to work with police.
"If the word gets out that you can come to the hospital and get really good care, we'll get more victims that get medical care," Jones said. The CCWRC trains volunteer SART advocates and has about 15 advocates who are part of the program. The advocates go through more than 80 hours of volunteer training for the center, followed by additional SART training. Currently, 15 additional advocates are in training for SART. There are eight SAFE nurses. Bishop said Penn State could help the response system even more by extending the hours that University Health Services is available, since most SART calls come in outside of the student health center's regular business hours.
