""When people say it changes your life, it really is true," she said. "For me, it kind of felt like dying which is also why I feel the link to surviving is so important, to draw that out." She said while it gets easier over time, it is still hard to talk about and live with. "You might see a trigger that you weren't expecting and then it might give you nightmares.""
""My fear was that accessing this healthcare would feel like being raped again. "I was really nervous that it might lead to self-harm or really poor mental health, and I wanted to help mitigate that.""
""At My Body Back, there were options we discussed," she said. "For example, I could administer the speculum for the cervical screening myself, which meant that nobody touched me. "I also did the appointment in the dark, which was helpful for me as I find light can sometimes be over-stimulating when I feel particularly vulnerable.""
My Body Back clinic at Mile End Hospital provides trauma-informed cervical screening and other healthcare tailored to people who experienced rape or sexual assault. The clinic offers options such as self-administration of the speculum, appointments in dimmed or dark rooms, and pre-appointment consultations with a psychologist to identify individual needs. These adaptations reduce fear, lower risk of retraumatization, and make routine procedures more accessible. One survivor reported intense post-assault changes in bodily relationship and fear that screening could trigger self-harm or poor mental health; personalized options and supportive staff helped her complete screening without retraumatization. The clinic celebrates a ten-year milestone.
Read at www.bbc.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]