Immediate medical assistance and all emergency contacts after rape

It is easier for the clinic if you say very briefly on the phone why you want to visit the clinic. Your request can then be dealt with more effectively. You can also write down the reason on site and at the registration desk or say: "I would like to speak to a gynecologist urgently."

Sana Clinic Offenbach
Starkenburgring 66
63069 Offenbach

Report to the emergency room on the first floor.
Please contact us by telephone to reduce waiting times.
Emergency room Phone +49 69 8405-7643

Ketteler Hospital Offenbach
Lichtenplattenweg 85
63071 Offenbach

Report to the admissions desk on the first floor.
Please contact us by telephone to reduce waiting times.
Telephone during the day (secretary's office): +49 69 8505-377
Telephone at night (gate): +49 69 8505-0

The doctors in the clinics are regularly trained by pro familia on the procedures. "The clinic doctors are very open-minded and interested. In the long term, the growing experience and sensitization will also lead to a better information situation for gynaecologists in the area and thus create more security in dealing with rape victims," says Bettina Witte de Galbassini, a doctor and psychoanalytical consultant at pro familia Offenbach.

"At the women's helpline of pro familia Offenbach, affected women and girls also receive confidential psychosocial counseling and support to help them cope with the event and make a decision for or against reporting it," adds Heike Pinne, Managing Director of pro familia Offenbach.

Head physician Dr. Lars Schröder from the Women's Clinic at Ketteler Hospital emphasizes that girls and women are in an emotional state of emergency after such an act. Thanks to the specially developed, freely available questionnaires and examination kits and internal procedural instructions, "immediate medical assistance" can be carried out in a standardized and legally compliant manner: "Affected girls and women can be sure of assistance in such drastic and stressful situations in our hospital."

"It's a reassuring feeling to be able to help in a place where legally compliant, approachable help is so important," says senior physician Dr. Silvia Khodaverdi, who has been coordinating and training these measures at the Sana Klinikum in Offenbach for years. "Sexual violence against children, women and men should simply have no place in our society," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Christian Jackisch, the long-standing head physician of the women's clinic at the Sana Klinikum in Offenbach.

Since the introduction of the emergency aid at the beginning of 2015 until the end of 2020, 49 women and girls have undergone examinations and treatment in the aid program. The vast majority have opted for confidential forensic examinations. Six cases were registered in the first half of 2021. "This increase in frequency can be explained by a slight increase in reported rape cases according to police crime statistics, but also by a growing awareness of the emergency aid," explains Dr. Inga Halwachs, Women's and Gender Equality Officer.

To ensure that women and girls are aware of the emergency medical assistance available after rape, the participating institutions provide continuous information about the service, and the city of Offenbach and pro familia also publicize it with the year-round poster campaign "If a sprained ankle is an emergency - what is rape?" on Offenbach's public buses. This is also made possible thanks to the financial support of the Sana Klinikum and the Ketteler Hospital, with the Women's Office covering 20 percent of the costs amounting to almost 3,000 euros. Further support comes from the Hessian Ministry for Social Affairs and Integration, which is subsidizing the public relations work for the project with 5,000 euros, which will be used, for example, to finance the four-week installation of the motifs on the outside of four buses. "Public relations work is very important to get the topic of rape out of the taboo zone. We send out a message: every rape is an emergency and no woman is to blame," says Halwachs.