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Male Sexual Abuse Survivors Struggle in Relations with Health Care Providers |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: New research reveals that male survivors of childhood sexual abuse face unique challenges that many health care practitioners do not recognize and understand as well as they should. Canadian researchers have found that although both male and female childhood sexual survivors have similar anxieties and fears about their encounters with health care professionals, there are gender based differences concerning perceptions of victimhood, guilt, shame, homophobia and vulnerability. "We found that it's doubly-difficult for males to come forward after they've been sexually abused, because many men have difficulty identifying and expressing their feelings. There is also a common perception that males should be strong and shouldn't ever admit vulnerability or ask for help," said Gerri Lasiuk, a PhD student in the U of A Faculty of Nursing. When the abuser was a woman, there was an attitude of, 'So what? The researchers found that in some cases health care providers--which include nurses, physical therapists, physicians, chiropractors, dentists and massage therapists--harmed more than healed the male survivors due to their lack of knowledge and insensitivity to the male survivors' lot. "Given that 5 to 10 per cent of men and 20 per cent of women are survivors of childhood sexual abuse, all health professionals encounter survivors every day in their practice no matter what their specialty.
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