Western University has teamed up with St. Joseph’s Health Care London to offer additional supports to students who have been sexually assaulted or the victim of domestic violence.
The partnership between the post secondary institution and the hospital's regional sexual assault and domestic violence treatment team was announced on Wednesday. It will provide students with supports 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"This complements the survivor supports Western has in place, in that we will add more specially trained, compassionate support after hours and on weekends, in an environment where survivors are most comfortable,” Terry McQuaid, Western’s director of wellness and well-being and co-chair of the university’s gender-based and sexual violence action committee, said in a statement.
The team from St. Joseph's consists of nurses, doctors, and social workers who have specialized training to help care for survivors of sexual and domestic violence, no matter their age, gender or sexual identity.
Students seeking support will be able to request to see the team on campus, instead of making the trek to the hospital.
“Previously, a student who disclosed violence and was directed to the program would travel, often on their own, to our clinic – a location and environment that were foreign to them – sometimes only hours after the trauma occurred,” said Cassie Fisher, Sr. Joseph's coordinator of medicine services. “This agreement with Western allows the nurses to meet the students where they are, discuss options of care and support them back to the program if or when needed. The survivor knows that whatever care path they choose, they are not doing it alone.”
Supports offered by the regional sexual assault and domestic violence treatment team include emotional support and crisis intervention, physical examination, testing, prevention, and/or treatment of sexually transmitted infections, HIV prevention medication, testing and/or prevention of pregnancy due to sexual assault, documentation/photographs of injuries and forensic evidence collection, and safety planning.
The new partnership comes as Western works to better address sexual violence on campus, an issue that came to the forefront in September when allegations of students being drugged and sexually assaulted at one of the residences surfaced online. While no victims came forward to police, the incident led to a massive student walkout and demands for change to how the university handles gender-based and sexual violence on campus.
Since then Western has established an action committee on gender-based and sexual violence, hired new residence health and safety advisors, engaged in mandatory sexual violence awareness and prevention training for students living on campus, and enhanced campus security.