New sexual assault strategy will provide much-needed services in northern, rural Manitoba, advocates say

The Manitoba government is developing a provincial sexual assault response strategy to extend care into rural and northern communities — services that are badly needed beyond Winnipeg, advocates say.

While people in the Manitoba capital "have access to so many different places that offer sexual assault services, they would notice a huge disparity between what is available in Winnipeg versus what's available outside of Winnipeg," said Cara McCaskill, the sexual assault resource co-ordinator at the Brandon Women's Resource Centre.

Expanding services for rural and northern victims of sexual assault is "something that we've been advocating for a long time," and will have a major impact for survivors who need services in their own communities, she said.

"Brandon has really very limited ability.... A lot of the training is not there for sexual assault-specific services," said McCaskill. "We often have to send people to Winnipeg, which is really unfortunate."

The rural and northern strategy will be developed over the coming year, and will build on the sexual assault nurse examiner, or SANE, program in Winnipeg, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Thursday, when the new rural and northern strategy was announced.

The intent is to bring the expertise of nurses, doctors, care providers and community partners "under one co-ordinated provincial strategy, expanding this wholistic approach to sexual assault and intimate partner violence care to other areas of the province," Asagwara said in a Thursday news release from the province.

It will be led by Dr. Yvette Emerson, an emergency medicine and family physician registered with Sandy Bay First Nation, Dr. Vanessa Poliquin of Shared Health and Leslie Spillett, who is Cree and Métis and a long-time community advocate.

More services needed

In Brandon, the Women's Resource Centre is one of the only agencies with staff who have been trained specifically around issues of sexual assault, and it has the only sexual assault-specific counselling program in western Manitoba, McCaskill said.

That program is constantly full, she said, which speaks to how serious the issue is in the area.

Manitoba has the highest rate of police-reported sexual assault cases in rural areas, with 170 incidents per 100,000 people in 2021, according to 2021 Statistics Canada data.

Surviving a sexual assault in a rural area can be an isolating experience, because of the challenges to accessing care and support, McCaskill said.

Coral Kendel, executive director of Survivor's Hope Crisis Centre — which offers support for victims of sexual assault in the Interlake-Eastern region — says some parts of the province are "incredibly underserved and under-resourced for sexual assault care, as it pertains to hospital care particularly."

In her region, survivors of sexual assault often need to leave their community and travel hours into Winnipeg to get access to the sexual assault nurse examiner program, said Kendel. That might also mean taking time off work, or finding child care, accommodations and transportation.

Survivor's Hope provides community-level care to survivors and the organization has a 24/7 crisis program — but it's not able to provide the same care as the sexual assault nurse examiner program, Kendel said. 

Nurses in that program are also critical for survivors who choose to go through the legal system, because they are able to collect evidence, ask questions and make reports for a legal trial.

"Those nurses provide such incredible care to survivors with empathetic responses — the knowledge of what trauma comes with an experience of sexual violence and the ability to care for them at an expert level," Kendel said. 

Rural Manitoba needs more permanent funding for sexual assault programs, coupled with the expansion of the nurse examiner program, McCaskill said.

She'd also like to see RCMP, rural police forces and rural health-care providers have access to training related to sexual assault.

Those initiatives could create a holistic approach to sexual assault care, McCaskill said, but unless those changes happen, a significant disparity between rural and urban care will remain.

As the province's new strategy is developed, it's essential to consult with people who are already doing the work and have established relationships in communities, Kendel said. 

"This isn't going to be an immediate fix, and unfortunately the state of things now has created a lot of distrust for individuals wanting to access our hospitals," she said.

"It's going to take some time for folks to … learn about it, and trust those avenues and start accessing them."