Cape Breton hoping for funding in sexual assault program expansion

Staff at Every Woman's Centre in Sydney are crossing their fingers that half of the money earmarked for sexual assault programs in Nova Scotia's spring budget will go to Cape Breton.

The provincial government has committed $700,000 to expand the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program to two more areas.

The announcement follows a CBC News investigation that revealed a Pictou woman who was sexually assaulted waited three days, without showering, while a SANE team travelled to New Glasgow to examine her.

Health Minister Leo Glavine called the story a "flash point" in government, noting that the case was "absolutely unacceptable."

Glavine revealed Cape Breton is a priority region for the service, as well as Nova Scotia's South Shore.

The province wouldn't disclose this week whether it's sticking with Glavine's word. 

"Over the coming weeks, we will work with the Nova Scotia Health Authority to identify the locations that could host the new service," Tony Kiritsis, a spokesman for the Department of Health, said in an emailed statement. 

"It's also worth noting that the service supports not just a single community, but a larger catchment area."

Cape Breton advocates hopeful

Louise Smith-MacDonald, the executive director of Every Woman's Centre, is hopeful Cape Breton will finally get funding for a SANE program. Advocates there have been pushing for the program over the last eight years.

"It's great news to our victims in Nova Scotia, and we're not making any assumptions. We have no idea where it's going," she said Friday.

"Hopefully one will come to Cape Breton but maybe not. It's certainly good for victims, as I say, across the province."

Glavine disclosed to CBC News that in the short term, nurses across the province will receive more training in smaller hospitals to properly use the sexual assault examination kit.

A handful of nurses in Cape Breton were trained a few years ago, but Smith-MacDonald believes a dedicated SANE program would be more effective.

"If you're hired as a pediatric nurse and you have duties, you can't just up and leave and go down to the ER," she said.

"A community-based operation contracts nurses and they are available on a 24 hour basis, seven days a week, and they get called out to do that specific job."

Every Woman's Centre in Sydney anticipates they will hear in the next few weeks about which two regions are getting the funding.

"It would run a program for sure, which makes a big difference for victims once they realize their concerns are taken seriously and that they are going to be seen by professionals to do an examination, and it gives them options," said Smith-MacDonald.