Cynthia Henrie, MFT

What to do if You are Raped or Sexually Assaulted

If you have been assaulted or raped, go to this useful website for assistance, 911Rape. This is good for both males and females. You are also welcome to contact me. I do provide emergency services for this very reason. Don't take a shower or remove the clothing that you were assaulted in. Call for help before you do anything else. You may want to go straight to a hospital that is specifically used for sexual assaults. These hospitals have the SART program: Sexual Assault Response Team. Click here for a list of local SART Hospitals. It is important to use a hospital that has the SART program because evidence may be missed at other hospitals. This isn't uncommon. In addition, it is important that you are able to receive appropriate assistance right away. You will be treated the best through the SART programs.

If you think you may have been given a rape drug, be sure to tell this to the medical providers and make sure that they take a urine sample and blood sample and that they are tested for rape drugs. Sometimes you have to tell them specifically to test for rape drugs. Some hospitals that don't have a SART team won't test for rape drugs, which is one of the reasons why it is so important for you to go to a hospital that has a SART team.

Rape drugs, also called GBH, Ruffies (Rohypnol), Liquid X, (Ecstasy), or Special K (Ketamine), are colorless, odorless, and tasteless when mixed with alcohol. Rape drugs are also known as club drugs, because they may be used at parties, raves or dance clubs as well. In the case of a sexual assault, a person will dissolve a tablet in your drink or put the liquid drug into something like an eye dropper bottle, a small vial, or something similar that won't be noticed by others and slip a few drops or into your drink. Rape drugs are used to incapacitate you to facilitate a sexual assault. They make you feel very drunk, cause you to have trouble remembering things and cause you to have an altered state of consciousness. They can make you sleep, pass out, or just make you feel really weak and drunk, depending on how much you were given. Because they are slipped into a drink by a perpetrator, you may question whether you were slipped a drug or got too drunk. Rape drugs heighten the effects of alcohol and can make you feel hung over as you are coming off the drugs. Many people vomit when coming down from them., just as if they were experiencing a bad hangover.

Here is a checklist of things you can do right after an assault:

þ DO NOT Take a Shower, bathe, douche, eat, drink, brush your teeth, wash clothing, clean off semen/bodily fluids or other potential evidence.

 

þ Go to a safe place.

þ Call the police. You can always decide not to press charges later, but it is harder to file a report the longer you wait. It is best to do this right away and make decisions about handling the legal aspects later, when you have had time to think things through.

þ Contact a person who you can trust to help you through the process. Remember that I can come to a hospital to be there with you if you would like, just call me. It will be completely confidential.

þ Take off your clothing carefully if you are able to and put it in a brown paper bag so any evidence can be preserved. This includes the shoes you were wearing, underwear, and any hair accessories, bandanas, hats or hair pieces.

þ The police will take you to a Hospital with a Sexual Assault Response Team, because they will handle your case the best.

þ If you think you may have been given a rape drug, tell the medical provider. Ask them to test for this specifically.

þ Write down all you can remember after the assault, the description of the perpetrator, where the assault happened, what exactly was done, times that events happened, etc. It is important to do this while things are still fresh in your mind.

þ Talk with a professional who specializes in rape and sexual assault to help walk you through the process and help you make decisions about how you want to handle things.