Anita Panko, Coordinator of the Montpelier, Idaho, Police Department Victim Assistance Unit and Project Manager for the Bear Lake Bright Tomorrows Child Advocacy Center (BLBTCAC), had wanted to attend the National Sexual Assault Conference for two years.

By Mary Malefyt Seighman, ALSO STAAR Project Consultant

Last year, she heard about an opportunity for travel assistance to the conference for STOP subgrantees through ALSO’s STAAR Project LINK program. Through LINK, Anita traveled to Chicago to attend the 2012 conference. She would not have otherwise been able to attend; Anita’s program has lost all funding except for a STOP subgrant, which allows for forensic interview advocacy for teen and adult survivors ages 13 and over at the CAC. “Going to a national conference is a pretty big deal. I was so grateful that they sent me…I really wanted to have something great come out of that,” she recalled. 

Montpelier is located within Bear Lake County in the far southeast corner of Idaho. The county borders northern Utah, with which it shares Bear Lake, a popular tourist destination. The county is rural and very remote (population: 5,9861, population density: 6.1/square mile); Montpelier is its largest town, with a population of 2,597². Victim services, including access to a sexual assault forensic exam, are scarce, and Montpelier is the destination for most survivors seeking medical care, advocacy, and other services.

Anita created a post-conference Action Plan that she shared with the other LINK NSAC attendees during an interactive webinar. Her goal was to make a sexual assault forensic exam (SAFE) available to anyone who needs it in Bear Lake Valley. Her challenge was to find a local doctor who would be willing to be the supervising medical staff for exams performed by the two SANE/SART nurses in the county, and to perform exams her/himself should the nurses be unavailable. The concern of physicians in the county was that the time required to testify and participate in SART and Coordinated Community Response meetings would reduce the number of hours that they would be available to patients.

Anita’s action plan included the following steps:

▶ Research how many sexual assault cases in the Valley have required doctors to go to court;

▶ Educate doctors on the actual time that would be required for exams and meetings;

▶ Discuss the issue with major community stakeholders who participate in the multidisciplinary team;

▶ Reach out to Child Advocacy Centers;

▶ Talk with Bear Lake Memorial Hospital;

▶ Introduce the idea that ER doctors rotate the responsibility; and

▶ Get buy-in from the hospital administrator.

After the conference, Anita spoke about her plan in a multidisciplinary team meeting that included the SANE/SART nurses. Around the same time, a new CAC Director was brought on board who is married to the hospital administrator. With the CAC Director and the nurses working together, one of the Obstetrician/Gynecologists soon volunteered to go to an upcoming free training, and is considering assuming responsibility for conducting or signing off on SAFEs.

“There is something about writing it down; I think it sets a certain amount of synergy in motion,” Anita said. “My action plan didn’t work out exactly the way I planned it, but because I had it written out and had a plan, I could put bugs in [stakeholders’] ears, and let it work out from there.”

1 United States Census, 2010 data. 

2 United States Census, 2010 data.