By Grant Terwilliger
Late Night for the Planet brought members of sexual assault services to the stage for their final game show of the semester April 8.
The first speaker of the night was Shelli LaVoie, director of sexual assault services for Planned Parenthood of the North Country.
According to LaVoie, the mission of sexual assault services is to support victims and survivors through trauma informed care.
“I love being part of a system that helps people work through challenges and empowers them to find hope and strength,” LaVoie said. “We are able to offer these services completely free of charge to anybody and all that you need to do is come to us and tell us that you would like some assistance. We don’t ask any questions.”
Some of the sexual assault services that Planned Parenthood provides are legal advocacy, counseling services, accompaniment and trainings.
The second speaker of the night was Gail Bjelko, an emergency room RN at the Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital. Bjelko works with physical trauma at the emergency room, but is also a sexual assault nurse examiner and the coordinator of the program.
According to Bjelko the emergency room only receives 40 or less cases of sexual assault a year. Bjelko mainly works in the emergency room treating patients with physical injuries, but said that she finds that being a sexual assault nurse examiner is about being there for patients.
“Being with patients, being with the advocates, and really doing and providing the best care possible for those patients who have been traumatized,” Bjelko said. “The care the nurse provides for the patient is really based on what the patient wants. So there’s nothing that we do that they don’t consent to.”
Bjelko said they partner with St. Peters health partners out of Albany for their telesafe program that provides a sexual assault nurse examiner via telemedicine if there is not a nurse specialized in sexual assault exams on site. Services are available 24/7.
CVPH also collects evidence up to 120 hours or five days after an assault as well as offers sexual assault exams, accompaniments, STI prophylaxis and HIV prophylaxis.
The third speaker of the night was Emily Stanley, a community impact manager at Planned Parenthood of the North Country and a certified rape crisis counselor through their services.
According to Stanley, trauma informed care focuses on the individual and their experiences and on what kind of support they need at the time such as person first language and skill building.
“When we’re working with people who’ve experienced sexual violence, sometimes we use words like victim and survivor, but those are things that we don’t assign to a person,” Stanley said. “We kind of follow the lead of how they identify, and they may not identify with either, and that’s okay too.”
Stanley emphasized that the sexual assault services hotline for Planned Parenthood, 877-212-2323, is available 24/7 and provides supportive services and accompaniment services.
“We don’t require anyone to share any type of information, whatever they’re comfortable with sharing,” Stanley said.
LaVoie highlighted the importance of the individual and their choice on what actions they would like to take following a sexual assault.
“We talk often as a program that everything that brings someone to see us was not their choice,” LaVoie said. “So really it is, hopefully, the beginning of empowering them to the future.”
