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December 14, 2017
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Residents 60 and older now get free access to rec centers
Nurse Jennifer Bishara, left, performs a strangling action on a mannequin head — named “Liz” — that she and nurse Stacy Hobson, right, use to ask strangulation victims to demonstrate how their attacker assaulted them. Bishara and Hobson are trained SANE/SAFE nurses, who work with victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. DAVID GILBERT
Aging population means city heading toward major demographic change
Sex-crime victims have allies in SANE nurses Littleton Adventist among hospitals with program that helps provide healing, justice BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Jennifer Bishara often meets people on the worst day of their lives. Bishara, a nurse, is the director of the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner/Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner program — or SANE/SAFE — for Littleton Adventist Hospital. She’s liable to be paged any time of day or night to meet with sex-assault victims, and to conduct a thorough evidence-gathering examination that could spell the difference between locking up sexual predators or watching them walk free. In an era in which politicians, entertainers and business leaders are facing waves of accusations
BY KEVIN BEATY DENVERITE.COM
of sexual misconduct, Bishara and her colleagues want to get the word out that victims of sex assault can expect skilled and loving help from experienced professionals. “When a patient comes in this room, they’ve had something taken from them,” Bishara said, sitting in a small examination room. “We give them their dignity and control back.” The program also cares for victims of domestic violence and strangulation, and is beginning to branch out into elder abuse and child abuse. The program has its origins in the 1970s, as forensic evidence collection commenced a sea change in how sex crimes were prosecuted. Today the program, overseen by the International Association of Forensic Nurses, is present in nearly 30 hospitals statewide — and soon expanding to Parker Adventist Hospital.
Young people aren’t the only Denverites who now have free access to the city’s rec centers. Mayor Michael Hancock has announced My Denver Prime, a new program that will give residents 60 and older open access to the city’s many public pools, gyms and healthy activities. As of Dec. 6, a Denver resident over 60 need only flash a photo ID to enter and stay active. Since 2000, Colorado’s senior population (65 and older) has grown faster than its total population. As of 2015, baby boomers and millennials were nearly neck-and-neck in total population and numbers of people in the workforce (boomers actually outrank millennials on both counts). The Denver Commission on Aging estimates that 1 in 4 Denverites will be older than 60 by 2030.
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THE BOTTOM LINE PERIODICAL
‘I have overheard people who make a coffee order sound like a recipe for pudding. If someone wants to meet for coffee, I am willing — if it’s coffee.’ Craig Marshall Smith | columnist, Page 6 INSIDE
VOICES: PAGE 6 | LIFE: PAGE 8 | CALENDAR: PAGE 4 VOLUME 91 | ISSUE 7