Latest news with #NWACenterforSexualAssault
Axios
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Your weekend plans: Shopping and festivals
It's springtime as ever. 🛍 Vintage Market Days — Shop art, clothing, jewelry and home decor today, Saturday and Sunday at the Benton County Fairgrounds. Get a three-day pass for $10. 🐾 PAWS OFF — Dogs are welcome at this event hosted by the NWA Center for Sexual Assault and The Momentary that will include face painting, vendors and food trucks. 1-4pm Sunday. 🍹 SonrisaFest —This block party includes free cocktails, live music, flash tattoos and vendors. Noon to 5pm Saturday at 428 S. Government Ave. in Fayetteville.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Funding cuts to federal Victims of Crime Act could impact healthcare system
SPRINGDALE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Following significant cuts to the Federal Victims of Crime Act funding, NWA Center for Sexual Assault predicts a domino effect impact on healthcare systems. The NWA Center for Sexual Assault provides emergency crisis support for adult victims of sexual assault, as well as community outreach programs for those more at risk for sexual assault in Northwest Arkansas. 'They are our only advocacy center that provides adult sexual assault services in all of Northwest Arkansas,' said forensic nursing manager Kacie Parrish. Parrish has worked as a forensic nursing manager for Mercy Hospital in Northwest Arkansas in collaboration with NWA Center for Sexual Assault and two other organizations overseeing medical components and managing teams of forensic nurses who respond to exam needs for those centers. NWA Center for Sexual Assault faces funding crisis According to the Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Arkansas has the second-highest rape rate in the country, with over three thousand cases reported in 2022. NWA Center's Taylor McKinney said federal cuts will likely create a community-wide healthcare crisis as local hospitals partner with the organization to perform exams on survivors. 'That's going to clog up the healthcare system even further,' said McKinney. 'And the hospitals just don't have the capacity to handle all of the cases that we alleviate from.' As highly trained forensic nurses with a specific skill set, Parrish said it takes around three to five hours to perform exams and documentation properly, which usually follows a quick medical screening at emergency departments before sending the survivors to the center. 'If that isn't possible, then you're going to have these patients taking up a room for five or more hours. And that's going to be one less room for a stroke patient, heart attack trauma, anything like that,' said Parrish. She said that this would create a backup through the emergency department. Knowing firsthand about the center's aid to the NWA healthcare system, Parrish said that none of the hospitals nor emergency departments in the region have staff able to perform sexual assault exams on the same level as nurses through the center. 'If the center were to not exist and we couldn't provide exams through that center, people would have to be going to the emergency department for sexual assault exams,' said Parrish. She said she believes the quality of exams will go down, the comfort between the nurses and the patient will go down, and the billing of sexual assault care will go up, overall causing a decrease in patient outcomes. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
