Helena sexual assault care program faces uncertain future after funding loss

Survivors of sexual assault in Helena faced a real access problem after St. Peter’s Health lost the rural designation funding that helped keep its forensic nursing program running. Without a replacement source, patients could be forced to travel farther for the exams, evidence collection and trauma-informed care that can shape both healing and access to justice.

Whitney Brothers, the program’s forensic nursing coordinator, said the uncertainty was the hardest part of the shift. That concern carried weight in a service that sees about 60 to 70 patients a year and launched in January 2022 with six specially trained nurses. St. Peter’s said the program had already grown beyond its original scope, serving patients from places as far away as Havre and helping people across Lewis and Clark County and surrounding Montana communities.

The program’s day-to-day work goes far beyond collecting evidence. St. Peter’s said forensic services were available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the emergency department through a sexual assault response team that included an emergency department provider, a forensic nurse examiner and a local advocate from an outside community agency. Patients had up to 120 hours to complete a forensic medical exam with DNA evidence collection, and if they did not want to report to law enforcement right away, evidence could be stored for up to one year through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Forensic Rape Examination Payment Program. After 120 hours, the hospital said patients could still receive medical evaluation, injury assessment, photographs if requested, STI and HIV education, and referrals to community resources.

The financial gap was especially significant because the federal money now carried most of the program’s weight. In 2023, the St. Peter’s Health Foundation said it received $700,000 from the Office on Violence Against Women and $32,248.50 from the Montana Board of Crime Control, a total of $732,248.50, to expand forensic nursing. The foundation said that funding would help pay staff salaries, specialized training for pediatric and LGBTQIA+ care, and survivor supplies such as clothing, gas cards and hygiene products. It also received $26,485 for a specialized forensic camera.

That investment came after the program reported an over 60% increase in patients needing forensic services over two years, with pediatric cases more than doubling. The Friendship Center in Helena, which works with St. Peter’s, said it served 722 people in 2023 and helped at least 115 sexual-assault victims, including 52 who were accompanied to a hospital, medical facility or forensic exam. Brothers has said the work is about restoring control and voice to survivors, and losing the rural funding threatened to make that care harder to reach just as Sexual Assault Awareness Month underscored how many people depend on it.