Developing Organizational Sexual Assault Care Protocol and Victim Centered Advocacy

Sexual assault is defined as unwanted sexual contact of any kind. Studies show that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men have experienced sexual assault or abuse. And if those individuals are serving outside of their country of origin, the statistics are even higher. Sexual assault is a traumatic event with broad ranging, often debilitating, effects on individuals, families, teams, and organizations. Victim centered care and effective individual and organizational support greatly increases the potential for resilient healing and post traumatic growth for all of those affected by this kind of critical incident.

Does your organization have a plan for victim centered care after a sexual assault incident? Is there an established communication plan for personnel to report incidents? Do personnel know what the care response will be once an incident is reported? Are there victim advocacy supports in place to provide physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual care to individuals, their families, and their teams? Does your organization’s crisis care management plan include protocols for sexual assault?

This course covers the often difficult to face realities of sexual assault in areas of service and helps you and your team put together a practical victim centered care plan, including an easily contextualized sample communication tree that covers all necessary organization touch points, as well as resources for care for incidents of sexual assault for personnel serving in country of origin locations, as well as international.

Course Objectives:

• Define the difference between sexual harassment and sexual assault and assess risk factors
• Define and discuss victim centered care
• Develop and discuss organization preparatory care protocols
• Receive sample organization communication tree
• Analyze and implement local and international post sexual assault care resources