Photo Courtesy EverythingGP Staff

By Tanner Smith

Health

Alberta government has launched a new sexual assault pilot program for rural area’s

Oct 5, 2022 | 4:05 PM

The Alberta government has announced a new pilot project to combat sexual assault in rural Alberta.

They are investing a million dollars towards a made-in-Alberta sexual assault DNA forensic evidence collection training program, to ensure healthcare providers can properly support victims in their own communities.

Jacquie Aitken, CEO of the PACE Centre says this program will not only feature easier access to forensic DNA test kits but will hopefully lead to more people coming forward with sexual violence, having the least police-reported rate out of any crime in Canada, sitting at six per cent.

“Given that we now understand sexual assault and trauma plays such an important part in whether or not we have a mentally and physically healthy community, we know what trauma does now, we have to take sexual violence seriously.”

She adds rural sexual assault rates inside the family are three and half times higher for rural areas than urban, along with violent crimes against young girls being higher in northern Alberta than in the south.

In the past, these tests have been administered by health care professionals at the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital, but with this program it will now become more universal to rural hospitals, allowing more people to stay close to home while seeking a forensic DNA test kit.

Grande Prairie Mayor Jackie Clayton says this pilot program will fill in the gaps missing from our support system for victims in the Grande Prairie area, as well as hopefully lead to more people coming forward to police.

“There’s evidence that shows if they can get their data quickly and if it can be dealt with in an efficient manner, there’s more likely that victims will come forward, the announcement is a milestone in ensuring equitable care and justice.”

Clayton says this program will also improve the quality of life in Grande Prairie with residents knowing they will have safe and accessible support, inside of their own community.

“Part of the program involves an awareness campaign and so individuals who are involved or who have been assaulted, it’s important for them to know there are support services in place for them, they don’t need to hunt it out, they don’t need to make multiple phone calls, they will know how to get the support they need and the services they need.”

Clayton adds this is a pilot program, so the Alberta government will be monitoring how effective this system is and will decide after a period of time if this program is something we should continue to do.

Funding for this program will be broken up into different sectors, a portion will go to getting hospitals the forensic kits, a portion will go to working with Alberta post-secondaries to create a course for medical professionals to take to administer these tests, and also a portion into grant funding for 190 medical professionals to receive this training.

According to Statistics Canada, the rate of police-reported sexual assault in Canada has reached its highest level since 1996.