3.1 Navigating Disclosure

It can be helpful for advocates to recognize that prior to arriving at the health center, the survivor may have previously shared the sexual assault with someone else and they may not have been treated compassionately or even believed.

In health center contexts, a healthcare provider may have pressured them to disclose before they were ready, reacted by blaming the survivor or strongly discouraged them from disclosing at all.

Unfortunately, it’s very common for survivors to receive negative responses to disclosing their sexual assault.

Rather than being helpful and supportive, or even simply listening, it’s not unusual for others, including healthcare providers, to blame survivors for the sexual assault.

Sexual assault is a crime, and it’s important for healthcare providers and others to recognize that when they blame the survivor for the crime that was committed against them, they let the perpetrator of the crime go free.

Anticipating your own reactions to disclosure will help you to better plan ways to respond to the survivor.

When listening to the survivor’s disclosure, it’s important to recognize that you will likely feel uncomfortable and that the situation will likely be more difficult and complicated than you imagined.

Your urge to be helpful may end up blaming the survivor or trying to fix something that is beyond your ability to fix.