Plans by the HSE to build a permanent sexual assault treatment unit (SATU ) in Merlin Park have been put on the long finger due to budgetary constraints. A temporary facility opened last month at Parkmore.
The health authority outlined this week that the proposal to build the permanent unit was contained in this year’s capital plan. However, most of the projects in the plan have been deferred due to the reduction in the capital budget for health.
The issue was raised in a written question posed by Cllr Catherine Connolly, a former vice chairperson of the HSE West’s regional health forum and a long term advocate for a sexual assault treatment unit in the city. She also asked if provision will be made for the treatment of children who have been sexually abused.
In a written reply the HSE said at present the capital plan for the SATU does not include designated space for children.
“However, the intention for the future is to ‘purchase’ time in the unit for the examination of children when required. The current situation regarding children where sexual assault is suspected is that we have an arrangement with a doctor who, where necessary, sees children privately in the hospital setting and whose invoices we pay. We are working on formalising this system.”
Cllr Connolly told this newspaper earlier that a specialised unit such as the SATU is an “absolute necessity” given the prevalence of sexual assault and violence in the community.
“The Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland Study, (known as the SAVI Study ) carried out in 2002 - an internationally recognised piece of research - consulted over 3,000 randomly selected Irish adults. It found that 42 per cent of women and 28 per cent of men experienced some form of sexual abuse or assault in their lives.
“Particularly significant also was their finding that sexual violence in Ireland still remained one of the most under-reported and under-recorded of violent crimes. Given this background the absence of a dedicated sexual assault unit in Galway was an obscenity,” she said.
