Lisa Isaacs
AFTER a complete revamp, the clinical forensic unit at Victoria Hospital was officially reopened yesterday.
Rape survivors and victims of sexual offences can now be comprehensively treated at the refurbished clinic, which is considered modern, comfortable and safe.
“I cannot emphasise the importance of a functioning system such as this one, in a country that deals with staggering numbers of sexual assault cases on a daily basis,” said Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo, who added that 7 944 cases of sexual crimes were reported in the province last year.
Mbombo opened the unit yesterday after it had undergone 10 weeks of transformation. Its rooms were painted, new blinds and curtains put in, its couches re-upholstered and the bathrooms retiled with the help of the Inner Wheel Club (a women’s volunteer organisation), Rape Crisis and private donors.
“The Rape Crisis unit is now a place where survivors can be treated with dignity, and where they can feel safe and secure,” Mbombo said.
The 24-hour clinical forensic unit offers services that include the medico-legal management of survivors of sexual offences and health-care services relating to accidents, sexual assault, injuries and trauma.
Rape and sexual assault survivors are referred to the clinic from 22 police stations in Cape Town. About 60 percent of the cases they assist with are rape cases.
Rape Crisis director Kathleen Day said the refurbishment started after a patient received a care pack consisting of toiletries, shampoo, hair combs and essentials to make patients comfortable, and wanted to thank the Inner Wheel Club that had donated the packs.
Day also said she wished the clinic could be made more comfortable for survivors.
“They’re in shock because they’ve been disempowered completely, so part of empowering the person is to follow four principles: safety, respect, choice and support. And this environment sends out those messages. You feel safe when you come here, you feel comforted, you feel comfortable. You know this is a place that’s going to respect you and support you,” Day said.
Marianne Tiemensma, a clinical forensic practitioner at the unit, said most of the sexual offence survivors they see are children, teenagers and young adult females.
“The patients are not only vulnerable when we see them, they are terrified. To be intimately examined adds to the horror of the whole experience. We need to make it as easy as possible,” she said.
Mbombo said well-kitted and functioning rape crisis centres are key to ensuring justice for survivors of sexual assault.
“Too often people are unaware of the services available to them. In times of trauma they are misled and mistreated by a system that hasn’t evolved to provide much-needed support.
“If they are received by a centre like this one, they are assisted with their critical examinations, their medico-legal process, and given the emotional support they need when one goes through the trauma of sexual violation,” she said.