Rape response group sets Sept. 25 seminar

Rape Response Services will hold a workshop on caring for victims of sexual assault from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, at the Ramada Inn on Odlin Road.

The seminar is for health care and social service professionals and is designed to give vital information to nurses, school guidance counselors, social workers, physicians, emergency room personnel, emergency medical technicians and police officers.

“What most people do not realize is that the victim … is an extremely fragile human being,” said Lennie Mullen-Giles, executive director of RRS. Victims may be stripped of dignity, humiliated, degraded and forced to experience loss of control over their lives.

“A lot of victims never talk about the assault. Many female victims are too traumatized to have routine gynecological examinations. The potential for long-term health effects for them is enormous — ranging from chronic infections to undetected cervical cancers.”

Speakers will include R. Christopher Almy, district attorney for Penobscot and Piscataquis counties; Michael Roberts, assistant district attorney; Dr. James Westhoven, Emergency Room physician at St. Joseph Hospital; Maureen Guerin, St. Joseph Emergency Department nurse manager; and Laura Fortman, director of the Augusta Area Rape Crisis Center.

Cost for the day, including lunch, is $65. Call 945-5597 for more information or to register.