Female Veterans Seek Treatment for Sexual Assaults

Oct. 31, 2007— -- The Department of Veterans Affairs announced it will open a facility this December to provide counseling exclusively to female veterans who have been the victims of sexual abuse or assault.

The treatment center, which will house 10 patients in Bernards Township, N.J., opens amid increased reports of rape and harassment by women serving in the military, and increased attention to the problem of military sexual trauma, or MST, by the VA.

According to the VA, there are currently 15 federally funded programs nationwide that treat both men and women for psychological ailments related to MST, which could include depression, withdrawal and thoughts of suicide.

The New Jersey facility, as first reported by the Star Ledger, will be the first and only residential program that treats women. Currently, six of the 15 national programs counsel women exclusively, but only on an outpatient basis.

"The VA wanted to make it known that it has specific facilities for women only, so if there are women who want to address this problem, and don't want to be near men, they have a place to go," said Susan McCutcheon, the VA's national director for military sexual trauma programs.

Since 2002, the VA has screened all discharged military personnel for MST, asking them if they have been the recipients of uninvited sexual attention, or the victims of assault. In total, more men than women — 63,467 men versus 62,448 women — have reported sexual trauma, but that figure represents just 1 percent of all men surveyed, compared to 29 percent of women, according to the VA.

By those figures, nearly one in three women in the military is at risk for sexual assault, twice as many as in the general population, according to Pentagon statistics.

"Sexual assault is the nation's most underreported violent crime. Some national studies indicate that one in six women, and one in 33 men will experience a rape or attempted rape in their lifetime," said Cynthia Smith, a Defense Department spokesperson.

While the VA says it has seen little change in the number of veterans reporting MST since 2002, the Pentagon has recorded a marked increase in the number of reported instances of harassment and assault by active duty personnel in the past two years.