COLUMBIA, Tenn. (WTVF) — Sadly, sexual violence happens in every community. Making things worse, in rural counties it can be extra difficult to get a sexual assault forensic exam after an attack.
In Columbia, Center of Hope recognized the need and did something about it. Its Safe Clinic opened in September.
"It's not the hospital, so not near as scary as going in there, and everything is confidential," said Cindy Sims, the executive director.
For many years, Center of Hope near the town square in Columbia has been a place domestic abuse and sexual violence victims could turn.
Sims explained there a variety of services available for people 16 and older from Maury, Giles, Lawrence and Wayne counties such as a 24-hour crisis line and therapy.
In this part of the state, only Maury Regional Healthcare and Vanderbilt in Tullahoma have nurses on-call trained to administer rape kits, according to this data collected by the Tennessee Coalition To End Domestic & Sexual Violence.
Now, Center of Hope has nurses ready to go to help someone who needs a sexual assault examination. These confidential exams are done at a clinic off-site.
"You can consent to one part of the treatment and not consent for another part. So the pictures, medications, all of the different things that they do for the forensic exam portion of it you can consent to or not," Sims explained.
One reason it's more difficult for people in rural counties to get treated after a rape is because there's a shortage of sexual assault nurse examiners. Those are forensic nurses who have received special training to conduct sexual assault evidentiary exams.
"It is very rigorous training — it's 300 hours — and not that nurses don't want to do it, they do, but it is expensive and it takes a long time," Sims said.
At the Safe Clinic, patients have the choice to get law enforcement involved or hold off.
For perspective, a rape victim has eight years to start legal proceedings under Tennessee's statute of limitations for the crime.
Those in our rural areas also deal with the highest rates of domestic violence. The towns of Dechard and Estill Springs in Franklin County have the highest rates in our area. We talked with those helping those impacted and came up with resources for those in need. We made a map of the hardest hit areas.
