This activity has been designed to meet the educational needs of medical and behavioral health professionals involved in the care of victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Objectives:
Identify the key requirements from VAWA 2005 that apply to sexual assault examinations.
Explore strategies to implement examination options for patients.
Provide some practical implementation strategies for sexual assault examiners to ensure that patients are informed of examination and reporting options.
Program Overview:
Access to healthcare after sexual assault can be critical to survivors beginning the healing process and to prevent long term health consequences. Reporting the assault to law enforcement should not be a barrier to accessing this care. In 2005 the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) stated that victims of sexual assault must be provided access to a medical forensic exam free of charge and without being required to cooperate with law enforcement or participate in the criminal justice system. Practical implementation of these options when working with multiple jurisdictions can be difficult without collaboration between community responders.Presenter(s):
Kim Day, RN, SANE-A, SANE-PKim Day, RN, SANE-A, SANE-P, is the SAFEta Project Director at the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN). As the SAFEta Project Director, she provides technical assistance and training around the U.S. DOJ’s National Protocol for sexual assault medical forensic examinations of adult/adolescent. She is a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner with dual certification as a SANE-A and SANE-P by the IAFN.
Mrs. Day has worked on many national level projects such as: the PREA medical protocol advisory committee, the NSVRC’s SANE Sustainability project, the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare's PREA standards training for correctional healthcare, and the SWCLAP’s SAFESTAR project. She also has participated in the OVW’s DNA Backlog Roundtable and the White House Roundtable on Sexual Violence. Mrs. Day also participated in the OVC’s Vision 21 project, was a member of the National Coordination Committee on the American Indian/Alaska Native SANE-SART initiative and the AG’s Federal/Tribal Prosecution Task Force the NIJ SAFER Steering Committee, OVW’s new Pediatric Sexual Abuse Exam Protocol project and the SART toolkit advisory committee.
Mrs. Day has spoken at many national, state and local conferences and webinars on the National SAFE Protocol, and the medical forensic examination. She has authored chapters and/or contributed to textbooks including: The Atlas of Sexual Violence, Sexual Assault Victimization Across the Lifespan and co-authored The Clinical Management of Children and Adolescents Who Have Experienced Sexual Violence: Technical Considerations for PEPFAR Programs in 2013. She has also written articles for several publications.
Leslie Hagen
Leslie A. Hagen serves as the Department of Justice's first National Indian Country Training Coordinator. In this position, she is responsible for planning, developing and coordinating training in a broad range of matters relating to the administration of justice in Indian Country. Previously, Hagen served as the Native American Issues Coordinator in the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. In that capacity, she served as EOUSA's principal legal advisor on all matters pertaining to Native American issues, among other law enforcement program areas; provides management support to the United States Attorneys' Offices (USAOs); and coordinates and resolves legal issues. Hagen is also a liaison and technical assistance provider to Justice Department components and the Attorney General's Advisory Committee on Native American Issues.
Hagen started with the Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) in the Western District of Michigan. As an AUSA, she was assigned to Violent Crime in Indian Country handling federal prosecutions and training on issues of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse affecting the eleven federally recognized tribes in the Western District of Michigan. Ms. Hagen has worked on criminal justice issues related to child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault for over 20 years.
Prior to joining the Department of Justice, she served as the staff attorney with the Civil Legal Justice Project for the Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and as a specialist in Michigan State University's School of Criminal Justice. From 1997-2001, Ms. Hagen served as the Violence Against Women Training Attorney for the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan.
During her 4.5 years in that position, Ms. Hagen developed a program that was recognized as "one of the best state-level training programs on violence against women in the country "by the Institute for Law and Justice in Washington, DC through an evaluation conducted for the Department of Justice. Ms. Hagen was the elected Prosecuting Attorney for Huron County, Michigan for two terms, an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Midland County, Michigan and a Prehearing Division Attorney for the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Throughout her career, Ms. Hagen has received several honors, including the 2013 and 2010 Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service in Indian Country and a Director's Award from the Department of Justice in 2004. She received appointments in 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005, 2005-2006, and 2006-2007 to the position of Chair for the State Bar of Michigan' s Domestic Violence Committee, gubernatorial appointments to two terms on Michigan's Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board, and the 1991 Outstanding Young Lawyer Award from the State Bar of Michigan.
Ms. Hagen is a graduate of Alma College and Valparaiso School of Law.