Expanding Your Program To Include Strangulation

Identification of strangulation is a standard part of the sexual assault assessment. Expanding assessment and documentation to other victims of strangulation may not require additional education on the part of the SANEs, depending on what the baseline education included; however, program managers will want to ensure training for staff on strangulation that presents outside the scope of sexual assault, such as with young people who play the “choking game.”

Challenges to this type of expansion—

1. How will patients be identified and referred to care?
2. How will SANEs and/or facilities be reimbursed for providing this care? 
3. How will SANEs collaborate with ED physicians to ensure proper diagnostic testing and treatment, or when the program is community-based, how and where that patient will receive the necessary testing and treatment?