Victims of sexual abuse or assault
have their world changed forever. These people who often become
patients feel degraded and humiliated by opposite gender care
and traumatized when this care is performed by strangers.
Sexual assault victims who have post
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have the right out of medical
necessity to obtain same gender care. PTSD
is a recognized disability. Not giving it to them
is the same as asking a wheelchair bound patient to get up and
walk if they want to be attended to. Patients with PTSD often
have triggers that will elevate blood pressure and give false
readings. Someone coming into the ER under those circumstances
would find it medically necessary to accommodate same gender
care to meet their disability in the event of suspected heart
attack or stroke. For this reason, all hospitals should always
have enough female EKG technicians, doctors, and nurses to accommodate
sexual abuse victims and other women who don't feel comfortable
with male doctors for a variety of reasons.
Patients feeling humiliated will avoid healthcare
which is a serious problem. The medical community needs to be
more sensitive to patient need first and foremost.
Many rape victims who have to come to the hospital
after being raped don't want male doctors to examine them at
all. It would make them go through even more trauma. It is very
important to get evidence of the rape to charge a rapist with
a crime.
Some sexual abuse victims have expressed that
they feel that even some female doctors or nurse practitioners
have been insensitive to their needs for modesty. For example,
one lady who had been raped in the past was very upset about
the way her pap smear was conducted by a female nurse practitioner
because she left the door of the examining room open at times
and let an assistant come in. She also had a very short gown
that didn't offer enough privacy. Another woman was upset at
the fact that a female gynecologist didn't close blinds on a
window in the examining room.
Contributed By: Belinda Diamond,
Writer/Researcher psycho social aspects of medical care that
are detrimental to sound mental health; patient advocacy training
for victims of sexual assault.
If you have problems with healthcare after sexual
assault, you can get
.
