A first-of-its-kind forensic clinic that will open its doors Tuesday should make it easier for survivors of sexual assault to seek the help they need in Collin County.
Courtney’s SAFE Place will be an alternative to the hospital setting for a survivor to undergo a free forensic examination in the hours after an assault.
“We just felt it was time to take it out of that environment and into a place that is warm and inviting and that is victim-centered,” said Wendy Hanna, the Executive Director of The Turning Point Rape Crisis Center.
Courtney’s SAFE Place is located at 3325 Silverstone Drive in Plano, and will be staffed 24/7 with on-call nurses and victim advocates who will be able to arrive at the clinic with an hour at any time of the day or night.
There is only one other forensic clinic like Courtney’s SAFE Place in the entire state: the Eloise House in Austin.
According to the staff at The Turning Point, when the Eloise House opened in 2015 the number of non-report rape cases — victims who wanted to come forward to receive medical help and follow-up care, but not necessarily prosecute their offender — rose by 200 percent.
“That said a lot to us. That meant that there are so many other victims out there, that are too afraid to either go to the police or they are too afraid to go to the hospital,” Hanna said.
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Currently, the staff at The Turning Point sees around 400 new sexual assault survivors in any given year. And because as many as 70 percent of assaults are never reported they believe those numbers will spike.
