Mobile Crisis reports sexual assault calls have doubled since last year

Chrystal Thornton has been busy since taking over the role as the sexual assault worker with the Mobile Crisis Unit in March.

According to Thornton, calls have more than doubled since she has arrived on the job. Calls are measured by any form of contact, whether through email, phone or in person.

From the months of March to July last year, a total of 164 calls were made compared to 362 calls this year. Thornton counsels approximately eight to 12 clients a week including roughly five new referrals weekly.

Thornton believes the increase comes from more awareness of the program, more education, and less stigma on the issue. Something she said she has worked extremely hard on. Still, Thornton believes much more needs to be done.

“There’s a lot of work – a lot of work that needs to be done to break that stigma, break that silence and start getting people talking,” Thornton said.

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“There’s still a lot of stigma out there and there’s a lot of barriers to victim accessing what it is that they need to get through what they need to get through and that we need to be aware as a community that this is a significant problem.”

Thornton has worked closely with the hospital, victim services, women shelters and the public school system to end the stigma and to educate.

“It is so normalized in so many northern communities, within the city of Prince Albert,” Thornton said, adding that she is the closest resource for anyone in the northern communities in need of sexual assault counselling.

Because of the stigma over the subject, Thornton said that many of her clients are middle aged victims who experienced the assaults when they were younger.

“This is affecting families a whole over generations, and because it was such a taboo subject and something you didn’t talk about and something that carries such a significant amount of guilt and shame with it, a lot of people that are coming to me now are in their 30s.”

“(Some are) saying to me, ‘When I first came forward, nobody believed me. When I first told somebody my mom said she was too and to just deal with it and try to move on with my life and try not to talk about it because of the shame that’s carried with it.’”

According to Statistics Canada, of every 100 incidents of sexual assault, only six are reported to the police and 60 per cent of sexual assault victims are under the age of 17.

With the number of calls and clients increasing, Thornton said it is coming to a point where she is not able to keep up with the numbers. She is currently working on a report that she will take to the Ministry of Justice and social services asking for more resources to help her take the load.

“I’m the only one here unfortunately … we need somebody else working here with me, the stats prove it. I can’t keep up.”

Thornton is currently working on forming support groups for adolescent and adult victims. She hopes to have it up and running by December.

knguyen@jpbg.ca

Follow on Twitter: @khangvnguyen