SANE’s worked with sexual assault victims for 25 years

By Elisha Meyer Kitsap News Group • November 1, 2022 1:30 am
Kate Espy, right, gives remarks next to one of the many people she credited with helping develop the SANE program. Elisha Meyer/Kitsap News Group
Kate Espy, right, gives remarks next to one of the many people she credited with helping develop the SANE program. Elisha Meyer/Kitsap News Group

Kate Espy has built a program at St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale that protects people during the most vulnerable times of their lives.

It is Kitsap County’s sole Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program, which has entered its 25th year of operation.

Prosecutors, child interviewers, care providers and the like gathered Oct. 27 at the medical center to celebrate the anniversary. Espy, SANE’s program manager, was all smiles.

“I’ve been part of the SANE program since it first started,” she said, “and it’s been an honor to support victim-survivors alongside my dedicated colleagues.”

Founded in 1997, the program was formed to offer 24/7 “critical and compassionate” care for survivors of sexual assault. While the program offers help to law enforcement in the prosecution of assailants with tools such as DNA testing, it primarily focuses on the health and well-being of the victims and their families.

“SANE’s not here to convict,” Espy said. “SANE’s not here to find the bad person. SANE isn’t here to just do DNA and make it sound like it’s a big deal. We’re here to take care of our patients.”

Those in attendance toured the facilities, the location of which cannot be shared due to confidentiality needs. The rooms, while medical in nature, keep the patient’s well-being in mind with activities and games among other items. Espy said that such a “safe and secure environment” helps the program offer quality care for patients.

Chad Melton, president of St. Michael, said that over the past 2 1/2 decades, that high level of care has been provided to over 4,000 patients.

The care is not just for those on the Kitsap Peninsula, but also those in Mason, Clallam and Jefferson counties. Actually, Espy said that it will offer any victim quality care.

“You come here, and we’ll take care of you,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s a jurisdictional issue, but we’ll make it work.

“Kitsap County is known as a model, across the state and across the country, at how well we work together, and a lot of us in this room all meet together frequently to take care of that patient and their families,” she said.