To think that 'promoting sexual safety in hospitals' is making the victim at fault. TW

[RadicalisedByMumzNet]

Am I unreasonable to think that hospitals should be responsible for me not getting sexually assaulted or raped and that it is unreasonable to expect the patients to

'To recognise and respond to behaviours that may put sexual safety at risk and to develop ways of protecting yourself'

What? I should protect myself when I am at my most vulnerable and if I fail to do so... then what... I deserve it?

https://twitter.com/JoPhoenix1/status/1647993865335447553

More here I just wasn't sure if links could be posted. I have deliberately avoided the more contentious issue as that would consume the thread and I think what is written in the picture is worth of discussion.

Maybe you're overthinking it? It looks to me like it's to help point things out to people (vulnerable people etc) so that they are supported in being aware of how they should feel safe. It also says the staff will actively support them in feeling safe.

I don't understand how you can read that and suggest that the NHS is telling people that people whom get assaulted deserve it!?!

There have been over 6500 rapes and sexual assaults in UK hospitals in the last 4 years.

When a woman was raped on a single sex ward, the hospital denied that a man was in the ward and said the rape could not have happened, lied to the police and denied them access to the CCTV that showed the rape and it took a year to get this information from them.

Staff making them feel safe? Are you kidding?

To me, it reads like an initially reasonable position about awareness and reporting lines that has been linguistically fucked about with so much by layers and layers of policy people that most of the meaning has been removed.

I think it comes from a well-meaning place, but the vagaries of the wording (and the confusing sentence structure) have rendered it clumsy and confusing.

(I used to write Easy Read documents for health services, and the source documents I was supplied always read like this word soup. Getting plain English out of them was a tricky job.)

I do also think there's a lot of clear blue water between taking responsibility for one's own personal safety, and victim-blaming. Whether this leaflet fudges it, I don't know.

'To recognise and respond to behaviours that may put sexual safety at risk and to develop ways of protecting yourself'

There is nothing wrong with this.

This is written with vulnerable people and their carers in mind. It is not saying "it's up to you to stop yourself getting raped", it's saying "these are the behaviours you might need to watch out for and report if you are feeling unsafe".

What? I should protect myself when I am at my most vulnerable and if I fail to do so... then what... I deserve it?

This is just bloody daft. Helping vulnerable people to develop ways of identifying and protecting themselves from sexual harassment / assault does not mean you're responsible for if you are attacked.

The Times reported yesterday that there are 33 rapes and assaults every week in hospitals.

Yanbu, this is a big issue and that doesn't cut it.

As an aside though there's a world of difference between providing advice that is targeted to reduce the risk of assault, and victim blaming.

It's like the advice we have to give our children when they start going out at night with friends drinking etc. Look out for each other, if you see someone is too drunk to look after themselves you need to look out for them, don't walk home alone, don't let your friends walk home alone - call me I will always come get you or give you taxi money.

We say these things not so we can apportion blame on them if something happens; but because vulnerable people often don't realise how vulnerable they are, and as parents with life experience we know better. You can buy insurance to replace your phone if it gets stolen and it makes it all good again. It doesn't work like that with assault and giving advice to help people recognise they're at risk, or something is not appropriate, that might prevent the assault from occurring or have ability to speak up is the right thing to do.

You’re being ridiculous. that is not what any of the materials you’ve linked to says or means. There is one sentence which could perhaps be clarified, but it is all clearly training materials for healthcare workers and patients so they know the hospital takes their safety seriously.

would you prefer no training materials?