This article is from page 17 of the 2006-04-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
A NEW sex-assault unit serving the mid-west is taking some of the trauma out of the investigation process that follows a sexual assault.
Clare victims of rape and sexual assault will no longer have to make a round trip of 150 miles, or more, to Cork for examination and the collection of forensic evidence.
A Sex Assault Treatment Unit (SATU) has now opened at the Mid West Regional Hospital in Limerick, saving victims from having to make the journey to the South Infirmary in Cork in the back of a squad car.
The Limerick SATU opened six weeks ago and has dealt with six people since then. The unit operates on a rota of 15 GPs and is housed in the hospital’s outpatients’ centre.
Limerick Rape Crisis Centre co-ordinator, Miriam Duffy, said that the mid-west had been crying out for the unit for many years.
“Studies have shown that where such a unit exists, survivors are more likely to stay in the legal process to the end.”
She said staff were “absolutely thrilled that we finally have a SATU. Usually, people are very surprised to learn that we don’t have a unit here.
But the reality was that people would have to get into a Garda squad car after they had reported the rape and travel to Cork in the same clothes, when all they wanted was to be able to take the clothes off as quickly as possible and have a shower.”