Improving NHS support for male victims & survivors of sexual violence

A survey for men with relevant lived experience.

Male Survivors Partnership are gathering men’s views to help develop a male-specific guide for staff working in NHS Sexual Assault Referral Centres. If you have a perspective you wish to share we would love to hear from you via this survey.

This is a fairly short, anonymous survey, intended to give you an opportunity to share your point of view rather than asking anything personal. Before continuing please read through the terms of participation and reflect on whether it will be beneficial to you to participate today.

Terms of participation

This is an anonymous survey designed to give you an opportunity to share your perspective as a person with lived experience.
We are not asking you to share any personal history, though you may choose to share experiences that help you illustrate a point.
Please do not disclose detailed information that might identify you personally. Male Survivors Partnership will try to remove any information that appears to risk identification of any specific places or persons.
Note that we may use direct quotes from your answers in the final guidance for NHS staff. By completing the survey you agree to us using these quotes without attribution or recompense.
Please only contribute if you feel emotionally well enough to do so.
Please make sure that if contributing triggers hard thoughts or feelings you are confident you will be able to access support you already know and feel confident in, for example one of the specialist services listed in our Directory, the National Male Survivor Helpline: 0808 800 5005 or SurvivorsUK online helpline.

Additionally, if you would like to discuss the issues with our team in more detail and have the opportunity to comment on the project please feel free to get in touch, in confidence, at survivorvoice@malesurvivor.co.uk.

Improving specialist NHS support for male survivors

A survey for men with lived experience to share views on what works and what could be better, from first seeking help through sharing what happened, getting help and what happens afterwards.

I am happy to participate under the above terms*
By selecting Yes from the drop-down box I confirm that I have read the terms above and I am happy to continue under those terms.
For men, what thoughts and feelings are involved in deciding about asking for help after an unwanted sexual experience?
This question aims to help NHS services understand how to support men to ask for help. Many men never ask for help. Of those that do, it is quite common that men take a while to contact a centre, sometimes enquiring two or three times before taking the next step, so better understanding of what men are thinking when they first consider help-seeking could make a real difference.
If you have ever asked for help from an NHS Sexual Assault Referral Centre, what worked well? what could they have done better?
This could include your first contact with the service, healthcare, medical examination, contact with police, or aftercare. It is useful to understand what works well, so centres can build on their strengths, but they also need to know what they need to be better at doing for male survivors.
If the NHS designed their help with men in mind, what would be ideal for male victims/survivors?
Again this could include anything to do with the service: location, advertising, attitudes, understanding, what's on offer, who runs it, how long you're there etc etc. Most of the time, services are designed as gender neutral or with the majority of users in mind, rarely if ever specifically for men. Perhaps this doesn't matter, but perhaps thinking what they would look like if they were specifically for men might suggest some significant and helpful changes.
Anything else?
Is there anything else that you think it would be good for NHS staff to hear about supporting male victims of sexual violence? This could include men in general or specific groups of men.
Monitoring data
Please will you answer some monitoring questions?
These questions enable us to show the NHS that we have heard from a diverse sample of male survivors.
- OK
- No thanks
How would you describe where you live?
What region do you live in?
What is your ethnic group?
Is your gender the same as the sex you were registered at birth?
- Yes
- No
How do you identify your gender?
What is your age group?
Do you consider yourself to have a disability?
- Yes
- No
Name
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

You may have attended a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC), you may never have heard of them. They are local NHS-commissioned services which aim to help people who have experienced sexual violence, offering them support to share what has happened, get medical help for any injuries, facilitate the option of criminal justice and help to arrange longer term care. Male victims and survivors currently form a small minority of people using SARCs so we are helping develop guidance so SARC staff are better informed about to help men and boys. Given the number of male victims across the UK we know that more can be done and improvement in SARC services can play an important part.

Improving NHS support for male victims & survivors of sexual violence

A survey for men with relevant lived experience.

Improving specialist NHS support for male survivors

Monitoring data

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