As part of continued renovations and restructuring at IU?Health Jay, a space in what used to be the behavioral health unit has been converted into the new home of The Center of Hope at the hospital. The program’s expansion to IU?Health Jay offers victims the ability to receive care close to home rather than being transferred to facilities in Muncie, Anderson or beyond. (The Commercial Review/Ray Cooney)
As part of continued renovations and restructuring at IU?Health Jay, a space in what used to be the behavioral health unit has been converted into the new home of The Center of Hope at the hospital. The program’s expansion to IU?Health Jay offers victims the ability to receive care close to home rather than being transferred to facilities in Muncie, Anderson or beyond. (The Commercial Review/Ray Cooney)
Feelings of shame, guilt and embarrassment.

Perceived negative consequences of reporting.

Fear of retaliation.

Those are just a few of the barriers to reporting sexual assault.

The expansion of a new program to Jay County’s hospital focuses and streamlining the process.

IU Health Jay last week announced the expansion of The Center of Hope to its facility and held an open house when the new program launched Wednesday.

“We’re just really excited to be able to have this,” said Christina Schemenaur, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer for IU Health Jay. “This has been a work in progress for three, four years now. … We’re really excited to be able to offer this locally.”

The Center of Hope is designed to provide a safe space for adult and adolescent victims of sexual assault to receive treatment.

Schemenaur explained that without such a program currently, most local sexual assault victims are taken by law enforcement officers directly to other facilities. Those who do come to IU Health Jay are examined to make sure they are stable, but then have to be transferred to IU Health Ball or facilities even further away.

“So they have to tell their story twice, is really the biggest thing,” Schemenaur said. “To get them to tell their story once is hard enough. And so for them to come here and then for them to have to be traumatized again … Being able to keep them local is what’s best for patients.”

With The Center of Hope now in place at IU Health Jay, the process for victims of sexual assault will start with a visit to the emergency room. They will be checked in and examined by a nurse and physician to make sure they are medically safe. During that process, a sexual assault nurse examiner — they will be on call from 7 p.m. Thursday through 7 a.m. Monday — will be called in. (The goal in the future is to expand coverage to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.)

The sexual assault nurse examiner will then help the patient to tell their story — once. They will also collect evidence, provide treatment and assist victims with setting up outpatient services.

“They’re very traumatized,” said The Center of Hope clinical operations manager Samantha Blake. “We just want to make sure that they understand they’re in a safe place. These are highly trained nurses who have spent a lot of time … developing this skill.”

The program also includes bringing in a victim advocate from A Better Way, an organization that provides shelter and services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Jay, Blackford, Delaware, Randolph, Henry, Wayne, Fayette and Union counties.

As part of the process of bringing The Center of Hope to IU Health Jay, Schemenaur met with nurses from IU Health’s west central region. There, The Center of Hope program was available first only at IU Health Arnett in Lafayette. It was then expanded to IU Health Franklin and IU Health White, which are critical access hospitals similar to IU Health Jay.

“They said in the first year they went from seeing about five patients a year to 75 or 80 a year,” Schmenaur said. She and Blake added that ultimately the goal is to expand the program to IU Health Blackford as well.

As part of the process of implementing the new program, IU Health staff met with local law enforcement officials Monday to provide details. Additional law enforcement training is planned for the end of the month.

Schemenaur and Blake noted the importance of providing such care, as data from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center shows 1 in 5 women have experience completed or attempted rape during their lifetime. A 2018 study on sexual assault showed that 81% of women and 43% of men reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault.

Removing barriers to those individuals receiving the care they need is the ultimate goal for The Center of Hope.

“These patients are very vulnerable,” said Blake. “Anything we can do to offset that is ideally what we would like to do. …

“It’s most important so they can start that healing journey.”
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