Raquel (fictitious name of a 23-year-old) was sexually assaulted last year. It was in a context of leisure, where she was drugged. An experience, without a doubt, very traumatic, but the worst thing is that it is not the only one he has had to suffer. Accumulate a few. The first, at 14 years old. He explains that last year’s was carried out by a stranger, from which it follows that the rest had someone close to him as the protagonist. Twenty-four hours after the last assault, he went to Clínic hospital to be treated. This center is the reference center in the city of Barcelona for victims aged 16 and over (below this age is Vall d’Hebron).
At the same time that she was attended to in the Emergency Clinic after the assault, she was informed that she could follow therapy to deal with the psychological sequelae. She admits that at first the world fell on top of her: she couldn’t see herself telling a stranger all her traumas. But he got there. After a year, he has already been discharged.
She visited a psychologist every 15 days, and although the end of the journey has been successful, the path has been arduous. “You have to go to the sessions prepared, knowing that you have to talk about delicate and hard subjects”, says this young woman, who initially needed pharmacological help.
After an assault of this kind, in addition to emergency care – where the victim receives care from various medical services (gynecology, infectious diseases, psychiatry and even surgery, if the patient is a man) – , the Clinic offers those affected two follow-up programs: one related to the physical consequences and the other to the mental ones. The problem is that “not all victims who join the program get to bond”, emphasizes Laura Blanco, the psychologist who treated Raquel. Because? “One of the symptoms related to post-traumatic stress [suffered by 70% of victims] is everything linked to avoidance. And, of course, coming to therapy means facing it.”
Thanks to the treatment, Raquel has managed to assimilate what happened to her. But he assures that it will accompany him all his life. “Even if you want to put it aside, it is something that will condition you on a daily basis. It marks your life.”
Their sex-affective relationships, for example, have been conditioned. To begin with, it takes a lot to explain it in person. “It means exposing yourself. In addition, you run the risk that it won’t catch on.”
This lack of understanding is also detected with respect to the complaint. “The first thing they ask you is if you have filed a complaint”, he argues. “That made me think, because it’s the last thing you think about at that moment: you’re very sad and you don’t even have the strength to get out of bed.”
Blanco points out that there are two processes, the judicial and the emotional, which have different times, and that it is better to do the second before the first.
Doctor Lluïsa Garcia Esteve, psychiatrist at the Clinic and president of the hospital’s Gender Violence and Health Committee, shares the same opinion. “The priority for the victim is to attend to their well-being and the [many mental health] consequences of having suffered a sexual assault.”
However, prioritizing the victim’s health does not mean turning your back on the possibility of reporting (half of the victims are clear that they will). When she is attended to in the emergency room, she is asked if she wants the court of duty to be notified so that a forensic doctor can be activated, who will be present during the examination to take away the collected evidence – which he will keep at the medical institute legal and forensic – in case, afterwards, the person wants to lodge a complaint. Regardless of whether or not the victim approves the presence of the coroner, the hospital always, and in all cases, sends a medical report of injuries to the court on duty.
