Healing from Sexual Assault: Why You Need Medical and Legal Assistance

mental health girl

Despite steps taken by law enforcement to protect people from sex offenders, sexual assaults still do happen. Sometimes they are committed by one’s family and other times by strangers. If you have been sexually assaulted, then you need medical and legal assistance. Such as a sexual assault lawyer who can provide legal representation and help you understand your rights and options, including filing a police report and pursuing a civil lawsuit against the perpetrator, while also ensuring that you receive the necessary care to aid in your recovery from the trauma of the assault.

Unfortunately, many people do not report when they have been sexually assaulted. Instead, they do their best to ignore what happened to them. Ignoring what happened to you could lead to you developing serious physical and mental illnesses, and it also means that the person responsible for assaulting you gets away with it.

This post will tell you why you need medical and legal assistance after a sexual assault.

Medical Support

Medical support is essential. If you have been sexually assaulted, then the best place to go is to the ER. You should go immediately after the assault. The reason for this is so that you can have blood tests performed, and any wounds triaged. One of the main advantages of going to the ER (even when it’s not necessary to do so) is that you can get your assault written down and recorded. More often than not, hospital staff will notify the police, who will come and visit you in the hospital.

Mental Illness

Mental illness is something a lot of sexual assault survivors have to deal with. After all, having somebody take advantage of you sexually can be very traumatic, so it’s not surprising that so many victims do develop mental illnesses. If you want the best chances of recovery (and do not want to have to worry about your offender still being out there) then medical and legal action is essential. Healthcare workers will be able to treat your mental illness, and the police will be able to arrest the person responsible.

STDs

STDs (or sexually transmitted diseases) are sometimes spread by sexual predators. Unfortunately, there is no real way for you to find out whether or not the person who attacked you had a disease of any kind without getting in touch with a doctor and having blood tests performed. Those who do sexually assault people are hardly the sanest and most sanitary of people, which is why STDs and STIs are always a risk. Make sure that you get medical support so that you can rule out any horrible diseases or infections (and get them treated if you have been infected).

Legal Aid

The police will be able to arrest the person responsible for assaulting you. A lot of people keep quiet after assaults, as already mentioned. However, when you keep quiet about an assault, you let the person who assaulted you get away with it. Allowing the person to get away with it, therefore, means that they are then able to go and hurt others. It is, therefore, your duty to take action. Taking action will help to protect people from the same person who assaulted you. Penalties for sex offenders are very high, so the person who assaulted you will most likely go to prison.

domestic violence
Domestic Violence – Image Copyrights by: Daniela Brown – Source: Flickr Creative Commons

Making Claim

You can also sue the person who sexually assaulted you, too. In the words of the specialists over at https://abuseguardian.com/doctor-sexual-abuse-lawyer/, nobody should have to deal with sexual assault consequences alone. You can hire a lawyer to represent you. In addition to being able to represent you in civil court and demand compensation from the person responsible for assaulting you, a lawyer will also be able to put you in touch with mental health services, ensuring that you get your problems treated and resolved.

Prosecution

The person who assaulted you can only be prosecuted if you take legal action against them. You will not need a lawyer for this part of the process, since the state will appoint an attorney to represent you (and the state) in court. Unfortunately, though, you will have to attend court and give evidence against your attacker. If you do not want to see the person who attacked you in person, then you can give evidence against them over a video link. Video link means you will not have to see them or anybody else in the court, just the judge.

Further Harm

As mentioned earlier, taking legal action against somebody who sexually assaulted you will prevent them from causing any further harm. Penalties and sentences for sex offenders and rapists are extremely high. In some places, they even get the death penalty. If the sexual assault committed against you was severe enough, then the person responsible might never be released from prison. Taking legal action will therefore save other people, and potentially you again. It’s not uncommon for sexual predators to attack the same people more than once. Do not waste time calling the police and getting help.

Other Victims

When you take action against a sexual predator, you can help to give their other victims the confidence to speak out. It’s common for multiple people to come out against sexual predators once one person does. This is because they do not feel like they are alone anymore. Having the courage to stand up and take legal action against an attacker could therefore help other people to do the same thing. This then means that the people who were also assaulted by the person will be able to overcome their issues and move on in their lives, knowing the person who attacked them is in jail.

Moving On

Finally, it will be very difficult for you to move on if you do not take legal action against the person who assaulted you. After all, how can you ever relax knowing your attacker is still out on the street? Even if you move far away, you will always feel nervous about them coming back for you. Having them arrested and put in prison means that they will be on a watchlist for the rest of their life and will be registered as sex offenders. This will protect you and other people.

Sexual assaults happen all of the time, unfortunately. If you have been the victim of one, then seek medical and legal support. Doing so will help you to move on with your life and also ensure that the person is unable to harm anybody else in the future.