FEDERAL WAY – At St. Francis Hospital, victims of sexual violence can now receive in-person medical advocacy services through a new partnership with Rebuilding Hope, a sexual assault resource center in Pierce County.

Launched at St. Francis in December 2021, the program — the first in-person sexual assault medical advocacy program in King County — served seven people in its first eight weeks, a hospital spokesperson said.

“I just think there’s something really powerful about having someone there to advocate for you, especially in a moment like that,” said Kyra Laughlin, violence prevention coordinator for Virginia Mason Franciscan Health. “Just to have someone by your side to support you,” she added.

Laughlin, who worked as an in-person advocate in Snohomish County before joining Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, identified the need at St. Francis and worked to implement the partnership with Rebuilding Hope, which responds to all the major hospitals in Pierce County.

Laughlin said her position is funded through CommonSpirit Health (the Catholic parent organization of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health), which has established anti-human trafficking task forces at pilot sites around the country.

St. Francis has the first task force in this area, launched in 2020 to increase the hospital staff’s ability to identify “red flags of trafficking and to know how to connect victim-survivors to resources in a trauma-informed way,” the hospital wrote on its Facebook page in January.

Laughlin said there are plans to launch additional task forces over the next year at other Virginia Mason Franciscan Health facilities — St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale, St. Elizabeth Hospital in Enumclaw and St. Anne Hospital in Burien.

Walking with victims

Before the new partnership with Rebuilding Hope began, sexual assault victims coming to St. Francis typically would receive a one-page handout of resources in King County, with the staff “encouraging or offering to connect folks to the King County program,” Laughlin said.

Although Rebuilding Hope is headquartered in nearby Tacoma, the organization — which offers advocacy, therapy and educational services — couldn’t provide in-person assistance to victims at St. Francis because the hospital was outside its Pierce County service area.

Now that the partnership has been established (with St. Francis paying just $7,500 for the services) the hospital’s sexual assault nurse examiner or the patient can contact Rebuilding Hope and ask for an in-person advocate to come to St. Francis.

The advocate meets the client in the hospital room to offer services, including staying with the client through the sexual assault examination, “as long as they want,” said Sarah Ciambrone, Rebuilding Hope’s sex trafficking and exploitation program coordinator.

Maybe the patient doesn’t want to be left alone in the examination room, she said, or needs someone to step out and ask for something from the hospital staff, she said.

“We’re really there to explain the process and provide emotional support,” Ciambrone said. “It’s a lot easier to … build rapport and make someone feel more comfortable in person rather than over the phone.”

“Sexual violence unfortunately happens in all communities,” Laughlin said. All hospitals should offer in-person advocacy “because patients deserve it,” she added.