Debbie Donovan
Manager of the Sexual Assault Treatment Center
Aurora Health Care
Debbie Donovan has a background in women’s health and nursing psychology. She used her background to help with the development of Aurora Health Care’s comprehensive Sexual Assault Treatment Center.
“At the time, this area didn’t have a rape crisis center, so we were able to build that into our program to serve a need of the population,” she said. “That allowed us to provide more wrap around services and connect with patients on a more personal level even as they went home and tried to integrate back into their normal lives and move forward despite having experienced that type of violence.”
The Sexual Assault Treatment Center (SATC) at Aurora Sinai is the only facility of its kind in Milwaukee and the largest in the state of Wisconsin. The team treats more than 600 victims of sexual assault each year. According to Donovan, it’s modeled after some of the most successful programs in the country and stands as one of the largest programs and resources in the nation as well.
As manager, Donovan is responsible for not only managing the nursing and counseling staff, but also spearheading the relationship with local law enforcement and dealing with almost constant turnover of positions.
“It’s not easy work,” Donovan said. “Not a lot of people are attracted to this type of work, but those of us who are here sort of rise up and support each other.”
Donovan is so passionate about the cause that she regularly volunteers her services at the hospital near her home in addition to running the clinic. She hopes the center can be a resource for other Aurora facilities in the community and others across the country.
“Our goal is to help others, and we try to reach out to other programs that aren’t as well supported that we know are smaller and actually have less care givers doing the work,” Donovan said. “We do a lot of that, certainly in ways of assistance and sharing expertise. We’ll lend help any way we can.”
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