Getting help - Forensic Nursing Service and Embrace Clinic

For people aged 12 and under, please go to your nearest hospital emergency department. The child will receive medical care and consultation or referral for specialty services as needed.

You have choices for care:

1. Forensic Nursing Service (see information below) for a medical-forensic exam
2. Embrace Clinic for trauma informed medical care (no forensic exam)

Contact Embrace Clinic.

The Forensic Nursing Service sees people of all genders, aged two years and older who have experienced intentional interpersonal violence within the past seven days (such as sexual assault, partner violence, “date rape drug”, family violence and elder abuse).

For people aged 12 and under, please go to your nearest hospital emergency department. The child will receive medical care and consultation or referral for specialty services as needed.

For people aged 12 and under, please go to your nearest hospital emergency department. The child will receive medical care and consultation or referral for specialty services as needed.

Ages 13 and older: Go to your closest emergency department in Fraser Health as soon as possible to have your health and medical needs cared for. Help is available 24-hours-per-day, seven-days-per-week.

• The staff in the Emergency Department can refer you to the Forensic Nursing Service if you want. If it is not offered, you can also ask to see the Forensic Nursing Service.
• Forensic nurse examiners work in the Emergency Departments at Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Surrey Memorial Hospital. You may need to be transferred if you are at another hospital and want to see the forensic nurse examiner.
• Our team tries to see people as quickly as possible, however, there may be delays due to other patients being seen, nurse availability or unforeseen issues.

This information is for people age 13 years and older.

The first step is to make sure you are okay and that any injuries or medical concerns are cared for. This is done by the Emergency Department Team. With your consent, Forensic Nursing Service will be contacted.

• The forensic nurse examiner aims to see you within one hour of being contacted. Sometimes there are delays if other patients are already being seen.
• The forensic nurse examiner will meet with you in a safe and private space where they will talk with you about your choices for medical and forensic care.
• A medical-forensic exam can take some time. This depends on the type of exam you choose and things that may be found during the exam, for example medical concerns or injuries.

This information is for people age 13 years and older.

Having a forensic exam is your choice. A forensic exam is for legal purposes only. A forensic exam includes documenting the details about what you remember happening. The physical exam can include documenting any marks found on your body, taking photographic images and collecting samples or ‘evidence’. Samples might include clothing, swabs from your body, blood and urine and other samples.

See our frequently asked questions section below for more information about this exam.

For people of all genders 13 years and older:

1. Medical care without a forensic exam

With this option you are choosing to talk with the forensic nurse examiner about your health and well-being after an incident of violence and do not want a forensic exam. You can return within seven days after the incident for a forensic exam if you change your mind.

Medical care can include:

• A head to toe exam of your body
• Medications to help prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and or pregnancy
• Other treatments or medications as needed
• Follow up medical care and repeat STI and or pregnancy testing by Embrace Clinic
• Referrals for other medical and social supports

2. Medical care and a forensic exam with a report to police

With this option you are choosing to talk with the forensic nurse examiner about your health and well-being after an incident of violence and want to report this incident to the police. If you have not already talked with the police, the forensic nurse examiner can help with this.

A reported medical-forensic exam can include:

• Medical care - See option 1 above
• Detailed history-taking
• A detailed physical exam with documentation of findings
• Photographic images
• Collection of samples (evidence) including clothing, body swabs, genital swabs, blood, urine, trace evidence and other samples

All of the forensic samples and forensic documents will be handed directly to police.

3. Medical care and a forensic exam with storage of forensic samples for one year

With this option you are choosing to talk with the forensic nurse examiner about your health and well-being after an incident of violence and you want to have a forensic exam, but you are not ready or unsure about reporting the incident to police.

A stored forensic nursing exam can include:

• Medical care – see option 1 above
• Detailed history-taking
• A detailed physical examination with documentation of findings
• Photographic images
• Collection of samples (evidence) including clothing, body swabs, genital swabs, blood, urine, trace evidence and other samples

All of the forensic samples and forensic documents will be securely stored at the hospital. Stored samples are not tested. These samples and documents are available if you decide to report the incident to the police. If this information needs to be transferred to the police, our forensic nursing service team will work with the police to arrange this. You do not have to come back to the hospital for this.

After one year, if you have decided not to report the incident to the police, the forensic samples will be destroyed. The documents and forensic images will always be available.

No, a medical-forensic exam will not be able to tell you exactly what may have happened to you. The forensic nurse examiner will write down anything they see and collect that might be used as evidence in a police investigation. Any samples or clothing are only looked at by a police lab so the forensic nurse examiner will not be able to tell you if there was any DNA, sperm or substances on or in your body.

Only medical test results will be available such as for sexually transmitted infections or x-ray reports. You can access this by contacting Embrace Clinic. Forensic (or legal) testing is only done at a police or crime lab so there will be no results from the hospital about DNA, sperm or substances on or in your body.

If you have a medical-forensic exam, it means that the incident happened less than seven days ago. This means that STI and HIV screening will not be accurate from the recent incident because it takes time for infections to show up in a person’s body and for the tests to be able to find it. The forensic nurse examiner may offer to do STI and HIV screening if you want.

If you are concerned about infection from your recent incident we recommend testing again in six weeks or if you develop symptoms. Embrace Clinic can do follow up testing for you.

The forensic nurse examiner might offer you medications to help prevent certain infections and will discuss this with you.

If you are a mature minor or adult who is able to consent for yourself, the police will not automatically be called when you come to the hospital after you have been hurt. The forensic nurse examiner will ask you details about the incident and in some cases may need to contact police or child protection services. All health care providers have a legal duty to report to the Ministry of Children and Family Development if someone under the age of 18 is being hurt by a trusted adult or living in a situation where there is violence happening.

If you tell the forensic nurse examiner that you plan to seriously harm yourself, they will need to involve emergency department staff to help keep you safe.

If you would like to report the incident to police, the forensic nurse examiner can help you with this.

Forensic samples are only stored for legal purposes and are not released directly to patients. When you report to the police, tell them that you had a forensic exam at Surrey Memorial Hospital or Abbotsford Regional Hospital. The police will ask you to sign a form giving our team permission to release your forensic exam samples and documentation. Once the police send us this form, we meet with the police to securely hand over the samples and documentation.

If you are unsafe, call 911 right away.

If you are in a safe place and want to report an incident of violence to the police, call the non-emergency police line for the city that the incident took place in, even if it is not the city where you live.

If the incident took place in another province or country, call the non-emergency police line for the city that you live in and they will help you with making a report.

All patients are offered a follow up visit in person or by phone with our specialty clinic, Embrace Clinic, whether you have a regular health care provider or not. This clinic has specially trained medical staff who understand violence and how it can affect your physical health, mental health, emotions, sleep, work/school and other parts of your life. They also can access your medical test results and answer questions about your medical-forensic exam. The forensic nurse examiner will ask if it is okay for Embrace Clinic to contact you after you leave the hospital. If you consent, Embrace Clinic will contact you within three days of your hospital visit to arrange a medical appointment. This follow up visit can be done either in person, or over the phone.

You can also find some follow up medical information in the Connecting to Follow-Up booklet that the forensic nurse examiner may have given you at the hospital or on our Resources and connecting to follow up webpage.

We cannot promise that your family doctor or nurse practitioner will not see the information from your emergency department visit. Details of your forensic exam are not part of your medical record, are stored separately and are not shared with your family doctor or nurse practitioner.

All patients are offered a follow up visit in person or by phone with our specialty medical clinic, Embrace Clinic, whether you have a regular health care provider or not. Embrace Clinic has specially trained medical staff who understand violence and how it can affect your physical health, mental health, emotions, sleep, work/school and other parts of your life. They also can access your medical test results.

If you have chosen to report to the police and you are wearing the same clothing when you come to the hospital, your clothing may be provided directly to the police by the forensic nurse examiner.

You will be given clothing to change into at the hospital if you do not have extras with you.

If you have clothing at home that you believe is evidence, let the police know when you make a report so they can collect it from you. If you are storing your clothes, always store them in a paper bag and not plastic.

A medical-forensic exam is one step in your journey.

After you leave the hospital, if you consented, Embrace Clinic will contact you within three business days to arrange a follow up medical appointment. This clinic is part of the Forensic Nurse Service Team. Embrace Clinic has specially trained medical staff who understand violence and how it can affect your body, mental health, emotions, sleep and other parts of your life. Embrace Clinic also has a specialty Strangulation Clinic for people who have experienced strangulation as part of their recent violent experience.

Other services may also contact you such as Police Victim Services, Surrey Women’s Centre – SMART Team, Ministry of Children and Family Development and the police.