Assault Care

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted:

• First, remember that what happened is not your fault.  You did not cause the assault, and no matter what happened, you did not deserve it.
• Get to a safe place.
• Try not to change anything at the location where the assault occurred.
• Remember that eating or drinking, showering, brushing your teeth, going to the bathroom, and changing or altering your clothes could destroy physical evidence that may be helpful if you later decide to pursue legal action.
• Consider contacting Abby’s House to speak with a Confidential Advocate who can provide referral services. An Advocate will also explain reporting options and help you find the on and off-campus services you may need.
• Consider contacting Sable House or Center for Hope and Safety to talk about and possibly report the assault.  These agencies can provide you with resources, emotional support, legal support services, and they can help you explore your various options.
• Consider reporting the incident.
• Even if you don’t want to file a police report, you should seek immediate medical attention.  A Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) will help ensure that you are healthy, provide options to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, and collect valuable evidence that may be useful in the future, even if you are unsure about pursuing legal action now.  Physical evidence can only be collected up to 84 hours after an assault, but a survivor in Oregon has six years to decide whether to pursue a criminal case without DNA evidence and 12 years WITH DNA evidence (or six and 12 years respectively after one’s 18th birthday if the assault was unreported and took place prior to the survivor turning 18).
  

  -The medical exam and follow up visits are free, even if you do not report the assault to the police.

• Consider seeing a counselor at the Student Health and Counseling Center.  In most cases, what you tell a counselor is confidential.
• You have a right to be believed and to receive appropriate medical, emotional, and legal support if you choose such options.

How to support someone who has just been sexually assaulted:

• Believe the person.
• Listen — without judging.
• Let the person know you support and care about him/her. Let the person know he/she is not responsible for the incident.
• Emphasize there is help available.
• Let the person know he/she is not alone.
• Let the person know about the services of Abby’s House, Sable House and Center for Hope and Safety.
• Tell the person about crisis hotlines they can call 24-hours a day:
  

  Sable House	503-623-4033 or 1-866-305-3030
  Center for Hope and Safety	503-399-7722 or 1-866-399-7722