MIDLAND, Texas — We're almost at the end of Domestic Violence Awareness month and now we are focusing on health care workers who offer support to not only domestic violence victims but also sexual assault victims, which are sometimes one in the same.
"That coming forward is the very first step in healing, you know to actually tell someone that something happened to you and even while were there giving medical care, that is really our focus to make sure their body is okay," said Dr. Cindy Burnette, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program director for Texas Health Resources.
Which is why medical professionals that specialize in sexual violence or domestic violence are so important.
"The biggest thing when we're in there is to make them feel comfortable, we're not there to try to revictimize them, so a lot of the things that we do is to encourage them and let them know we believe them, you know whatever they say happened to them, we believe them because a lot of the time people don't want to come forward because they think someone's not going to believe what they have to say," said Dana Taylor, Director of Emergency Services for Midland Memorial Hospital.
The specialists help treat them and also collect evidence.
"We as a nursing staff will take them in and get a history of what happened to them and then we do a head to toe exam just to check for any injuries and just to document and kind of injuries that we find and then we do forensic evidence collection, taking swabs," said Taylor.
But it's not just about taking care of them physically but also providing them with resources so they can continue their healing journey.
"Especially if there's a sexual assault component to it and we know when there's a domestic violence's there's often a sexual assault component to it as well we automatically call our local rape crisis center to come to the bed side too so they can offer them services. They might not do anything that day but just be a hand to hold or provide emotional support," said Dr. Burnette.