A Colorado healthcare program is struggling to provide essential care for survivors of sexual violence after a notable loss of funds.
A Colorado healthcare program is struggling to provide essential care for survivors of sexual violence after a notable loss of funds.
The Mesa County Sexual Assault Nurse Examination Program (SANE) is known for its 24/7 hotline with an on-call, forensically trained nurse available to answer urgent questions and schedule a sexual assault exam as soon as possible.
However, the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Grant was slashed in early January. The Center for Children – which manages the SANE program’s finances – faced budget cuts of more than $100,000.
Executive Director of the Center for Children, Scott Barks, said the organization cannot support SANE’s on-call nurses or hotline after February without jeopardizing its own sustainability.
“I’m still in hopeful discussions with one of the program stakeholders, but I’ve not heard back from a couple of others since November — even though everyone agrees this is such an important critical program to have in the Valley,” Barks said. “That’s concerning to me because we have to look out for the interests of the Child Advocacy Center services first and foremost.”
If funding isn’t secured by March, the SANE hotline will likely become inconsistent. The existing four nurses would operate the service without pay in order to allocate funds for necessary training, licensure, and malpractice insurance.
Mesa County SANE Coordinator Janet Prager emphasizes the urgency needed to remedy this situation. Nurses in this field are constantly faced with experiences that can be physically, emotionally and financially exhausting. The original on-call wage of $4 per hour has always been a barrier to staffing.
“You’re asking a medical professional who has spent a lot of years in training to do something for free,” Prager said. “Besides the professional liability, there’s the emotional piece: I can guarantee you that every SANE nurse in this country at some point has had emotional trauma secondary to what they’re doing.”
“I think to ask somebody to do that for free is an insult,” she added.
Beyond the impact on SANE nurses, the hotline’s reduced hours could potentially force survivors to wait days for an exam or travel to another town. A waiting period like this could result in lower-quality care or missed deadlines for evidence collection.
In the midst of financial turmoil, leaders like Barks and Prager hope that community partners can see the value of the SANE program, understand the impact of the budget cut, and find a way to support services through action.
“(Victim service) organizations have been told (repeatedly by state legislators that), ‘Your community needs to figure out what programs matter to them in their community,’ and if the Mesa County SANE Program matters as much as I think it does, then we can find a solution together,” Barks said.
Authors: Alexis Kabat and Andy Goldwasser
