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Brockville General Hospital |
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MEDIA RELEASE A LIGHT TO SHOW THE WAY It’s a dark side to our society, but the Centre works to shed some light on it. The Assault Response & Care Centre (ARCC) is marking 15 years of service to Brockville and area with a week of displays for public information at the Brockville General Hospital from April 26th to 30th. There will also be a barbeque and cake on April 29th from 11:30 – 1:15 at the front entrance and in the cafeteria. This week leads into May as Sexual Assault Prevention Month for Ontario. The statistics on sexual assault are grim—and growing. Women make up 86% of all victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, with over half at the hands of someone they know. But it doesn’t stop there. “We’ve seen an increase over the past few years in referrals for male victims and younger victims,” says Laurie Bourne-Mackeigan, Coordinator of ARCC. “It’s definitely not a positive trend.” The Centre provides support in three ways: follow-up to assault through an on-call nursing team working with the ER on a 24/7 basis; counselling for female, male and child victims of domestic violence or assault; and public education. “The education component is the biggest one for us,” explains Bourne-Mackeigan. “We have younger victims because our youth are dating younger. We used to talk to Grade Nine students in their health classes, but that is too late in today’s society. Our Education Coordinator Lisa Fleming goes to classes as young as Grade Three to talk about peer pressure, healthy families and healthy relationships. It’s only through early intervention and prevention that we’ll see change,” she adds. ARCC began 15 years ago through provincial funding to start 35 such centers across Ontario and now operates under the Brockville General Hospital umbrella. With a mostly part-time staff, the Brockville centre is busy and could easily work with three full-time counsellors. Aside from the basic services, ARCC also offers two 10-week women’s groups for survivors of abuse and/or assault, holds special workshops when grants allow, and are working with the Victim Services Committee of Leeds and Grenville and students from TISS on the Violence Against Women Memorial to be built at Block House by this fall. The bronze statue will depict two women raising their arms over their heads to hold up a trio of doves taking flight. “We’d like to see the memorial be a symbol of hope and healing, where people can go and reflect,” says Bourne-Mackeigan. “It’s a community project because the community has to take responsibility for violence if we are ever to see social change.’ The fifteen-year milestone for ARCC tells the staff they are needed. “Our continuing goal here is to be part of the solution to end violence against women, children and men,” Bourne-Mackeigan explains, and then adds with a smile, “It’s a funny thing to say but we’d all like to work ourselves out of a job.”
The ARCC team (l – r) Lisa Fleming, Education Coordinator; Laurie Bourne-Mackeigan, Coordinator; Sharon Hinbest, Councillor; and Lorraine Lessard, Office Administrator. For more information, contact:
Healthy people – Outstanding Care
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