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New VA center to focus on sex assault victims

BERNARDS TOWNSHIP, N.J. — The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to open a new treatment center here that will focus exclusively on women veterans who have been victims of sexual assaults.

The move comes amid an increase in sexual assaults reported by the military. U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan mean that there are also now women veterans suffering combat-related stress, on top of sexual trauma.

The VA already has a network of 15 sexual trauma programs, but those programs either care for both men and women, or for women who have mental issues not related to sexual assault.

The 10-bed facility, opening in late December at the VA’s Lyons medical center in Bernards Township, will be the only center solely treating women experiencing what is known as military sexual trauma.

“There’s a lot of women who have residential needs who I think are less likely to come to the VA because it’s literally spending 24-7 with guys,” Miklos Losonczy, one of two VA psychiatrists behind the creation of the treatment center, told The Sunday Star-Ledger of Newark.

Losonczy worried that women veterans who need treatment might not be seeking it because “they think the VA is all men and wonder, ‘Why would I get my military sexual trauma treatment surrounded by men?”’

The number of sexual assaults reported in the military rose from 1,700 in 2004 to 2,947 in 2006. The Pentagon attributes the increase to a new reporting system meant to encourage women to come forward by giving them the option not to pursue formal charges, according to Department of Defense spokeswoman Cynthia O. Smith.

Women’s advocates outside the VA applaud the creation of the New Jersey center, but still say the Department of Defense and the VA have each been slow to respond to sexual assault and harassment in the past.

One women’s advocate — Anita Sanchez of the Connecticut-based Miles Foundation — told The Star-Ledger that the VA waited too long after an early 1990s congressional mandate calling for more inpatient centers to treat military sexual trauma.

But Susan McCutcheon, the VA’s national director for military and sexual programs, told the newspaper that the number of inpatient treatment centers is growing. The VA, she said, has also set up a network of 135 military sexual trauma counselors working at outpatient treatment centers.

“We have an opportunity to do incredible things. It has been high-profile and will continue to be,” McCutcheon said.