A sexual assault response team that would allow victims to be examined and treated without leaving Haines is stalled by lack of forensic equipment.

Sexual Assault Response Teams, called SARTs, are multi-disciplinary groups comprised of a medical professional, a law enforcement agent and a victim advocate. The group is aimed at providing immediate coordinated response to a victim of sexual assault, including crisis intervention, team interviews and forensic examinations.

SART protocol is organized so a victim tells their story once in the presence of all three agencies, instead of repeating it multiple times.

Currently, individuals reporting sexual assault in the Chilkat Valley are sent 93 miles south to Juneau for medical exams and documentation, which some health care professionals say acts as an additional barrier to already low reporting numbers.

In Haines, there were four reported cases of sexual assault last year, compared to eight in 2017 and two in 2016, but that number doesn’t reflect the cases that go unreported, Haines Police officer Brayton Long said.

A 2015 survey from the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault found that 33 of 100 Alaskan women experience sexual assault and half experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or both.

Though Haines now has a complete trained SART team, SEARHC clinic administrator Stephanie Pattison said that the clinic does not have the equipment to perform an exam, and is not likely to get it soon.

“Right now, there’s no way that my boss is going to give me that money (for equipment) because we don’t have enough cases here,” Pattison, who took over as administrator in November, said. She estimates the costs to be $16,000. SART equipment has not been requested for budget consideration, Pattison said.

Pattison is a trained sexual assault nurse examiner for adults and children and ran the SART program in Kotzebue, Alaska for four years. She said that having a nearby resource in Juneau for victims moves the SART team down on the list of priorities for SEARHC, though she personally hopes it’s a service that can be provided in the future.

Jackie Mazeikas, who has run Becky’s Place Haven of Hope, a domestic shelter in Haines, since 2012, said she sees more abuse than what’s reported. In 2018, the shelter served 31 women and children and two men. Though Mazeikas doesn’t keep records differentiating patient abuse, she said she helps a number of sexual abuse victims each year. “It happens frequently,” Mazeikas said. “Many women don’t even come to Becky’s Place.”

Typical rationale for not reporting includes fear of retaliation from an abuser, judgment from the community, or fear of police, Mazeikas said. “I’ve heard women say that the men they’re with say ‘Who’s going to believe you?’,” Mazeikas said. She said she wants victims to understand that the police are an ally, and that the Haines Borough Police Department is “full with passion and understanding.”

In Nov. 2018, Southeast Alaska Regional Health Center (SEARHC) nurse Rachel Kukull, Haines Borough Police Department officer Brayton Long and Becky’s Place’s Jackie Mazeikas attended SART training in Ketchikan. The training is held biannually and is sponsored by Alaska’s Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.

In past years, Haines professionals have attended SART training, but never with a complete trio of necessary members.

Mazeikas, Long and Kukull agree that eliminating the need for travel would likely encourage victims to report sexual assault.

“It wouldn’t give them time to second-guess,” Mazeikas said. “When you have days to re-think it sometimes you lose the desire to see it through. You just want to pick up the pieces and move on.”

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s 2015 report identified rape as the most underreported crime in the country, with 63 percent of all cases unreported.

Like Haines, Kenai victims reporting assault had to travel to Anchorage or Homer — at least one and a half hours away —to seek care, prior to the establishment of their SART team in 1998. Since, local advocacy center’s executive director Cheri Smith said she’s seen an uptick in victims reporting.

“It is a lot of additional trauma that victim has to go through (to report in a rural community),” Smith said.

The forensic nurse in Homer who spearheaded the first SART program in the state, Coleen James, said that “Any time you get anything like (a SART team) established in your community, reporting rates will go up.”

Nurse Kukull has continued her training since the November workshop, aiming to become a certified sexual assault nurse examiner, though it is not a state requirement for SART nurses. Currently, she is completing 40 hours of online training through a grant she received from Tribal Forensic Healthcare. Following completion, she will have to finish 200 hours of training in a facility, likely in Western Alaska where reported assault cases are higher, she said.

Kukull said that she is motivated to receive her sexual assault nurse examiner certificate to better perform her role in a sexual assault examination, which could require her to testify in court as an expert witness.

“For the (cases) that are reported, I wouldn’t want to be like, ‘OK, now you have to get on a 4.5-hour ferry ride to Juneau,’” Kukull said. “I didn’t want there to be anything else that could deter somebody from reporting.”

Shortening the time between when a victim reports sexual assault to when they are examined is also critical in preserving evidence, experts say.

“Every day you wait, you lose physical evidence,” Pattison said. She added that a victim of sexual assault should not shower, change clothes or brush their teeth until evidence is collected.

In order for a SART team to become operational, the local players will have to write a memorandum of understanding and purchase special equipment, SART program coordinator Meggie Stogner said.

Necessarily tools include a colpascope to take magnified photos of genitalia or the back of a victim’s throat, a black light to detect body fluid and a camera to document a victim’s condition, Pattison said last week.

The equipment cost can total between $11,000 and $15,000, according to other state SART teams. Petersburg, Kenai, Sitka and Bethel have bought equipment with grants, SART members from each community told the CVN this week.

Bethel’s hospital, run by Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation just purchased a new $14,999 colpascope using its capital funds, according to previous manager Greg Billett. The SART team in Bethel also recently bought a colpascope for children with $11,000 of federal grant money.

Petersburg and Bethel both received grant money from the federal Office of Violence Against Women that allowed them to purchase and/or update equipment, local representatives said.

There are 17 SART teams operating in Alaska. To report an incident of sexual assault or domestic violence in Haines, call the Haines Borough Police Department, Becky’s Place or SEARHC clinic.

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