Health dept. puts spotlight on sexual violence

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Leaders of the Indiana State Department of Health and the Indiana Sexual Violence Primary Prevention Council held a seminar Thursday to unveil the state's new sexual violence prevention plan. Representatives from organizations that included faith-based, health, rape prevention/counseling as well as child and family service attended.

The state department of health formed the plan after a committee studied the prevalence of sexual violence in the state and analyzed resources for two years.

"Numerous physical and mental health problems are linked to sexual violence and the resulting trauma. It is truly a serious public health issue," said Abby Kelly-Smith, chair of the Sexual Violence Primary Prevention Council at the Indiana State Department of Health.

Through its plan, the Indiana State Department of Health hopes to engage the people of Indiana in the primary prevention of sexual violence using state and community-based strategies for societal change.

"The health and social implications of sexual violence can last a lifetime and can carry into the next generation. It is time to take action to prevent violence before it happens," said Kelly-Smith.

The Indiana State Department of Health plan has six goals that include the following:

• To facilitate stakeholder awareness and participation in the implementation of the Indiana Sexual Violence Primary Prevention Plan.
• To build and strengthen capacity to prevent sexual violence in Indiana
• To support communities in using evidence-informed strategies and programs for sexual violence prevention through technical assistance.
• To enhance social norms that promote sexual violence primary prevention
• To ensure the inclusion of priority populations in state and local sexual violence primary prevention efforts.
• To enhance sexual violence data collection, analysis, and sharing.

The department plans to spearhead a number of efforts to achieve those goals. For example, it wants to increase current funding levels dedicated to sexual violence primary prevention by 30 percent by the year 2013.

It also wants 30 percent of the state's colleges and universities to have held sexual violence prevention programming by 2015.

The state department of health hopes to use data collection better and use the information to analyze the prevalence of sexual violence in the state.

24-Hour News 8 anchor Deanna Dewberry served as emcee of the event.

For more information on the plan as well as other tools and resources on preventing sexual violence visit the department of health Web site .