Where do I get medical attention, or forensic evidence collected after a sexual assault?

The Regional Domestic Assault Program has specialized nurses, sensitive to your needs, who are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These emergency services and choices are available to survivors of recent intimate partner violence:

• Treatment of injuries in the emergency department
• A safe, quiet, and private place
• Mapping, documentation, and photography of your injuries
• Risk assessment
• Safety planning
• Referral to a shelter/safe place
• Referral to counselling and other community services
• A follow-up phone call and visit within 3 days

Solider’s Memorial Hospital also houses the Regional Centre for Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Program, which is also open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some of the services offered include:

• Care and treatment of injuries
• A safe, quiet, and private place
• Documentation and photography of injuries
• Referral to counselling and other community services
• A follow-up phone call and visit within three days

Language interpretation services are available to you at the Centre.

If you need to get to the SADVTC in Orillia, please call our crisis line.

Care at the Centre is provided in a secure treatment room to protect clients’ privacy and safety. Upon your request, your care will begin within 45 minutes of your arrival at the Soldier’s Memorial Hospital Emergency Department. You can call ahead to let someone know you’re coming so that they are ready to meet you and reduce the amount of time spent waiting to be seen.

No. There is no fee for any Sexual and Domestic Violence Treatment Centre (SADVTC) services.

Yes. The Centre is in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide you with the support and care you want and need.

You can bring a friend or family member with you if you would like to have their support during the process. The clothing that you were wearing during the assault can also be collected as part of the kit, so you may want to bring a change of clothes with you or ask something to bring them for you. Know that you can also still have a kit done if you have showered after the assault, brushed your hair, or changed your clothes. Avoiding these things can help with evidence collection, but it is not always realistic. You need to do what is right for you, and just know that you can still ask to have a kit done if you choose, regardless of having done any of these things.

Someone who is under the influence of medication, drugs, and/or alcohol is considered impaired, and cannot give consent. You are still entitled to medical attention and the collection of forensic support regardless of whether drugs or alcohol were involved.

That is completely okay. You can consent to having a kit done, and the evidence can be stored for up to one year so that you have time to decide how you want to move forward.

Your consent is required at every step of the evidence collection process. This means that you can withdraw consent and change your mind before or during the process. You may consent to having certain parts of the kit done, but not others, and that is okay.

This is also completely okay. While biological evidence can help a police investigation, police are able to investigate even if a kit is not done.

Creating a safety plan is about brainstorming ways to be safe that may also help reduce the risk of future harm. It might include considering:

• Your immediate physical safety
• Your emotional safety
• Your safety and technology
• Your safety at home, school, work, etc...
• Your safety and transportation

The Staff at the SADVTC can help you design a safety plan that best suits your needs.

A Sexual Assault Evidence Kit (SAEK) is a kit that specially trained medical professionals use to collect biological evidence for a survivor after a sexual assault. The evidence is collected using swabs, DNA samples, blood samples, and photographs. The evidence that is collected can be used if you decide that you want to press charges, whether that is right away, or at a later date.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are generally, but not always, acquired through sexual contact. They can be passed from person to person through blood, semen, vaginal, and other bodily fluids. There are plenty of effective treatments for STIs and STDs using different medications and antibiotics, and the medical professionals at the hospital can best advise you on the most appropriate course of treatment.

Consent should be: F.E.R.R.I.S.:

Freely Given

• This means that you are consenting to something without any pressure, guilt, or threats being made toward you

Engaged

• This means that you are fully aware of what is happening, and you want it to happen

Reversible

• This means that you are free and safe to change your mind at any time.

Repeated

• This means that everyone involved is continuously asking for and receiving consent. Consent is not something that happens once. It is an ongoing process of checking in.

Informed

• This means that you understand exactly what is about to happen

Specific

• Just because someone says yes to one thing, does not mean they are saying yes to everything

Domestic violence (also referred to as intimate partner violence, or IPV) is violence and abuse within an intimate relationship. You do not have to live with your partner to experience this type of violence. IPV can include multiple forms of abuse, including sexual, physical, verbal, digital, financial, emotional, and spiritual, among others.

Sexual violence is any activity that violates a person’s sexuality, or bodily integrity. It includes anything that has happened without consent.

There are 37 SADVTCs across Ontario. The Regional Centre at Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital serves Simcoe County and Muskoka.