As anyone who knows me knows, I work for the Rape Crisis Center. I’m mostly a hospital advocate, but sometimes I work in the office on the hotline. I prefer the graveyard shift because there is no traffic at three in the morning. Oh, and late night is when people need a calm person the most.
I’ve met some very interesting people. I love the nurses I work with. They are amazing people. I’ve trained a lot of volunteers that have come and gone. In fact there should be some new ones coming through soon.
As a hospital advocate, my job entails going to the hospital when a case comes in. As of my most recent case I’ve done 129. No two cases are the same. Some survivors are devastated by what happened, some are already joking around about it and I’ve even seen people who are completely numb.
When I arrive at the hospital, I meet the survivor with normally no warning on what to expect. It helps to have a poker face and not be shocked if someone is badly injured. It’s rare, but happens.
So I’m a calming presence in the room. I make small talk about things they like while I fill out paperwork so the office can follow up with them. If there’s a police report number I can also fill out the Crime Victim Compensation program with them. I won’t bother going into details on that, but it’s a good program.
As a male advocate I rarely have to go into the room for the actual exam. The exceptions are if it’s a male survivor, the female survivor requests me (Happened twice.) or if the nurse isn’t comfortable alone with the survivor, I.E. A criminal. I face the wall and just talk to them.
I’m not a touchy person so that helps me put people at ease early on.