R.E.A.C.H – (Rape Examination Advice Counselling Help)

R.E.A.C.H opened in September 1991 to provide a free, confidential counselling, support and advice service for women (aged 16 and over at the time of the assault) who have been subjected to an attack of a sexual nature. It was initiated by Northumbria Police and their Women Doctors Scheme to respond to clients needs. Since January 1998, staff at‚ R.E.A.C.H. have been able to extend the remit of this service to include men aged 16 and over at the time of the assault. 

R.E.A.C.H. provides an appropriate environment the gathering of  forensic evidence, when this is required, and the follow up support and advice which has so often been requested.

Follow up support includes counselling services. Counselling is also provided to those whose first language is not English and R.E.A.C.H uses appropriate interpreters who are now very experienced in this field.

The service is available to people in the Northumberland or Tyne and Wear areas‚ whether or not they make a formal complaint to the police.

There is also a Case Tracking service provided to victims through the Criminal Justice process from the commencement of an investigation to conclusion at court. The Case Trackers are located within R.E.A.C.H and only provide this service to victims of Rape and Serious Sexual Assault.

The Centres are primarily funded by the Police Authority and the Primary Care Trusts North and South of the Tyne with Gateshead PCT acting as a Central Point of contact.  Local authorities provide small amounts of funding on an ad hoc basis. The R.E.A.C.H Centres are supported, in a non financial way, by many other agencies.

R.E.A.C.H. has two dedicated centres; The Ellis Fraser Centre in Sunderland and The Rhona Cross Centre in Newcastle. They are designed to provide a fully equipped medical examination suite, interview facilities and quiet rooms for counselling. A trained doctor can be available to carry out forensic examinations, if necessary, and can be contacted to do this, whether or not the police have been informed. Specially trained police officers can be contacted for information and advice.

A full-time Manager, 4 part-time Counsellors, a Job Share Case Tracking Co-ordinator post a Support Services Supervisor and part time Support Services Administrator staff the centres.

R.E.A.C.H. strives to make its service accessible to as many people as possible and can provide outreach counselling when appropriate.

MANAGER’S REPORT

Much has taken place over the last 12 months since I produced my first annual report last year.

The team at REACH have taken steps forward to further improve services to victims in a number of ways.


IMPROVEMENTS TO VICTIMS

It is nationally acknowledged that male victims of rape and sexual assault, given a choice, would prefer their forensic examination to be performed by a female doctor. A number of our Forensic Medical Examiners (FME) have now received training to allow male victims of rape and sexual assault the opportunity to undergo the examination by a female FME.

SPECIAL THANKS: DR ROBERT MURPHY

I would like to pay particular thanks to Dr Robert Murphy for his valuable work over so many years in providing this service to male victims, and furthermore for his continued support and understanding by providing our female FME team, with training in order that the needs of victims can be more sensitively met.

CLOSE LINKS WITH PARTNER AGENCIES

At the ‘Without Consent’ CPS Conference this year, two of the REACH counsellors were able to feed directly into the Conference the perspective of the victim, giving attendees a close insight into the expectations of victims and for some, the unfortunate reality that securing a conviction of this crime, is generally fraught with problems and obstacles. The emotional impact of victims was explained to provide a deeper understanding of typical responses to various stages of Rape Trauma Syndrome. A number of recommendations were made by REACH and, where possible, these are being progressed.

THE FUTURE

REACH staff are always working hard to find new ways of helping victims and looking for ways to remove the problems and obstacles that will allow more victims to come forward and report to the Police, if they wish, or to support them in other ways, and to tackle societal attitudes towards the myths of rape.

We are implementing a Client Satisfaction Survey during the next calendar year and hope that the results of this will help guide and direct us as to where we can make further improvements, as a result of direct feedback from our service users.

As Dr Adams reports in the FME report, we are working towards securing a day time service so that victims of rape and sexual assault, do not have to wait longer than the national recommended time of 4 hours, before being offered the opportunity to undergo a forensic examination.

CLOSE

It has been another difficult year where we have again seen many people using our services, and hopefully finding ways to cope through difficult times.

I would like to thank all of those people involved in providing our services and working closely with us, for their commitment and understanding.


Michelle Moody
REACH Manager

The R.E.A.C.H FMEs

As one of the R.E.A.C.H doctors, I will try to summarise the many activities that have taken place in the last year.

Doctors’ rota – changes over the year.
We are very pleased to have Rina Miah and Maya Chetty as regular doctors on the rota. With the return last year of both Karin Piegsa and Jan Welbury, we have managed to cover most of the “on-call” hours. Kirstin Richardson went on maternity leave earlier this year, and now has a little girl to add to her family; it was good to hear that they are both well, and that Kirstin intends to return as a R.E.A.C.H doctor in November.
In the early summer we said goodbye to Alison Oxby, who left because of difficulty combining her GP work with her considerable commitments to the FME service (clinically and on the management side). All the doctors are grateful to Alison for the large volume of work she carried out for R.E.A.C.H.
We currently therefore have ten doctors; occasionally there are times when the rota is stretched and the Control Room has to ask for help from Durham FMEs.

FME work
Numbers of call-outs can vary widely, but weekends, Bank Holidays and Mondays are usually busier.
The redesigned Samples Reference Forms and Female Examination Booklet have been improvements, and the recent introduction of modules for all forensic specimens, though complex, is effective. We have been pleased with the willingness with which the R.E.A.C.H management team has taken on board our suggestions for changes.
I believe that victims seen at the R.E.A.C.H Centres are treated sensitively and efficiently, and many seem to appreciate the way they are looked after, despite the obvious stresses they are going through.

Court and CPS
We each of us have had different experiences during the year regarding Court appearances, but speaking personally I have had cases either successfully prosecuted, or with guilty pleas. Liaison with CPS is improving all the time. Support from the Chief Prosecutor, Nicola Reasbeck, has been very welcome. It has been helpful to have input from Fiona Thompson, Case Tracker at R.E.A.C.H, on the progress of our cases.

Clinical lead FME
Detective Superintendent Mike Jones is pursuing this goal, together with the provision of medical examination cover during “9 to 5” on Mondays to Fridays.

Training
A half day of training was arranged for the FMEs at the new Forensic Science Service Centre, at Barmston, Washington, in June. This was a good opportunity to see the Centre, which was well on the way to being fully operational, and to update some aspects of the medical examination.

Dr Elspeth Adams, Sexual Forensic Medical Examiner