Long-Term Support Needs of Adult Sexual Assault Survivors
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Development of Measures to Assess the Long-Term Support Needs of Adult Sexual Assault Survivors
IRAS ID
281719
Contact name
David Gadd
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 4 months, 1 days
Research summary
Research Summary
The main aim of this research is to asess the feasibility of using a survey to gain a better understanding of adult sexual assault survivors’ needs. Following an allegation of a sexual assault, the victim is supported by various agencies to access a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC). The role of the SARC is to help the victim undergo a forensic examination and provide them with further support such as Independent Sexual Violence Advisor services and counselling. Saint Mary's SARC was established in 1981 as a response to deficiencies in the medico-legal response to rape and was the first centre of its kind in the UK.
At the moment very little is known about the extent to which the support offered by legal, health, and social care agencies including SARCs helps mitigate the trauma in the longer term.
Our study has designed a questionnaire that can assess the impact that the sexual assault has had on the person’s physical and mental well-being as well as the type of social support he/she has accessed or would find useful to access. To ensure the study is appropriate for the population we held 6 stakeholder meetings with various local Non-Government Organisations and healthcare professional groups who are already supporting vulnerable people, who provided extensive feedback on the questionnaire.
All participants in the research will be asked to fill in a self-report online questionnaire. Where access to online is hindered, other options will be set in place to ensure accessibility.
For this study we will recruit participants who have disclosed an assault and attended a Forensic Medical Examination at Saint Mary’s SARC in Manchester. We will only recruit participants over the age of 18 years.
As a gesture of thank you for taking part in our study, we will gift participants a £20 voucher.Summary of Results
Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) offer support for survivors of sexual abuse, including medical, psychological, and legal assistance. While SARCs are effective in the short-term, survivors are often offered less support in the longer-term. A questionnaire, measuring the long-term needs of survivors, was created to help inform services how best to meet them. The questionnaire is accessed online and designed to be completed at three, six and twelve months following an assault so changing needs can be tracked. It asks respondents what effects they suffer from the assault, the support they sought and how effective it was, as well as what other support would be helpful to them. It also measures respondents’ mental health. In 2020/2021, the questionnaire was piloted on a sample of Saint Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre clients. The pilot was designed to assess the feasibility of the survey, and the procedure of recruiting participants. Participant recruitment proved difficult. Only 18 people completed a survey three months after attending Saint Mary’s, of which only nine completed a follow-up survey a further three months later. Tests of validity showed the questionnaire to be a promising measure of the long-term needs of sexual assault survivors, but it is impossible to be conclusive about this with such a small sample. Ideally this would include a researcher embedded in Saint Mary’s SARC who could administer the survey in person. Responses to the questionnaire suggest that sexual assault survivors have a sustained need for long term emotional and psychological support. Most respondents suffered from moderate/severe anxiety and/or depression as well as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, months after the assault. Survivors also need ongoing support in the legal process, and help stopping further abuse. Half of the respondents had been sexually assaulted more than once.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NW/0350
Date of REC Opinion
30 Sep 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion