JPS Trying To Identify Abuse Sooner
By Mitch Mitchell, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

October 28, 2004

Eight months after Julie Perhacs went home with the man of her dreams, she realized her marriage had to end.

That realization came when she was three months pregnant and her new husband slammed her into a wall, then punched her in the stomach.

Still, it took her eight years before she left him.

"If there had been someone who had listened to me in that little town, it would have made such a big difference," Perhacs said.

People at the JPS Health Network are trying to train more people to learn how to look, listen and ask the right questions of rape and domestic violence victims. Seven nurses are being trained in the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program, enlarging the JPS staff to nine, said coordinator Eva Murray.

Nurses began the SANE training this month, and will begin using it after the new year, a health network spokeswoman said. There are only 19 certified SANE nurses in the Metroplex, according to the Attorney General's Office, which sponsors the training.

JPS treats 40 to 65 sexual assault victims each month. About three are male. Untrained nurses and physicians often miss the symptoms and signals of victimization, Murray said.

The SANE nurses will be trained to spot victims of domestic violence, Murray said. Every two minutes in America, a woman is raped, Murray said, but there is a woman battered in America every nine seconds.

"Only a third of the women who are injured enough to get help actually seek it," she said. "They live at home with those injuries. Sometimes they die at home with those injuries."

Typically, it takes six to eight visits to the hospital before sexual or domestic abuse is identified, said Glenn Raup, senior emergency room director for John Peter Smith Hospital. The health network will attempt to develop the program into a center of excellence and a research site for victims of sexual and domestic abuse, Raup said.

Perhacs reported the incidences of abuse she suffered from her husband, but when she questioned the police about the reports, no one could locate them, she said. Perhacs refused to identify the town or county where she was abused, and where her husband was a friend of the sheriff.

"The first time I called the police, they patted my husband on the back and told him to drive around to cool off," Perhacs said. "Everytime I called the police and nothing was done, it reinforced the idea that no one would ever help me."

Advocates trying to stem the tide of violence against women are asking for help from the medical community across the state, said Chris Lippincott, Texas Association Against Sexual Assault spokesman.

"Unfortunately, very few people see sexual assault as a health issue," he said. "It very rarely occurs to a sexual assault victim to seek medical assistance. It's perceived as a criminal justice issue. The sexual assault victims who do seek medical help do so because of additional injuries sustained during an attack."

Experience is an important factor when health-care professionals deal with rape or domestic violence victims, said David Montague, a staff attorney with the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office.

Twelve to 15 years ago, when Montague first started doing these cases, the health network used interns to administer rape examinations, he said.

The interns, or physicians who had just completed medical school, "were not experienced," he said. "And by the time we went to trial, they were gone. The SANE program is a real help to law enforcement."

ONLINE:www.taasa.org; Texas Association Against Sexual Assault

In the know

About 1.9 million adult Texans, or 13 percent of the adult population of the state, have been sexually assaulted.

Nine percent of female Texans were assaulted before the age of 14.

Only 18 percent of victims report their assault to law enforcement.

About 24 percent of the sexually assaulted women and 18 percent of the sexually assaulted men were also victims of other violence.

SOURCE: Texas Association Against Sexual Assault