GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — April 1st marks the start of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Dana Stueber leads the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner’s Program at St. Vincent Hospital.
“Any time someone comes to the hospital and is reporting a sexual assault, they automatically call in a SANE nurse. These patients require a little more time that you would normally get in an ER setting. They call us in. At the same time that they call us in, we call in an advocate from the sexual assault center. We’re actually working as a team for this victim,” Stueber said.
The SANE program saw 238 victims in 2021, compared to 243 in 2020.
Stueber says this is the first time the program has seen a decrease since the 90’s.
“It’s not that I think the sexual assaults have come up, but it’s that they have the services now that we’re able to see them. It’s happening, but we don’t always get to see them,” Stueber said.
Chelsey Steffens, a Victim Advocate with the Sexual Assault Center of Family Services says the center saw an uptick in the number of people asking for help after things started to reopen amid the pandemic.
“If you think about how COVID isolated a lot of people, many people were stuck at home with their abuser, with domestic violence situations, sex trafficking situations, but also children and minors receiving abuse within the home or within the family unit of some sort. So not being able to reach out to get support within the school, getting support of people,” Steffens said.
Stueber and Steffens want to show survivors that they see them.
Steffens painted a teal ribbon outside St. Vincent Hospital, a sign of support.
“And we’re here as advocates to let them know that we believe them, we support them, and it’s an opportunity for the general community to say we stand with survivors,” Steffens said.
If you or someone you know is a survivor of sexual assault, click here for additional resources.
