Section 2638.

Thoughtful, confidential standards of physical and mental health care shall be implemented to reduce the impact of sexual abuse on inmates and wards in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that include all of the following:

(a) Victims shall receive appropriate acute-trauma care for rape victims, including, but not limited to, treatment of injuries, HIV/AIDS prophylactic measures, and, later, testing for sexually transmittable diseases.

(b) Health practitioners who conduct or encounter an inmate or ward suffering from problems that might indicate sexual abuse, such as trauma, sexually transmissible diseases, pregnancy, or chronic pain symptoms, shall ask whether the patient has experienced sexual abuse.

(c) Practitioners should strive to ask frank, straightforward questions about sexual incidents without shaming inmates or displaying embarrassment about the subject matter.

(d) Confidential mental health counseling intended to help the victim to cope with the aftermath of abuse shall be offered to those who report sexual abuse. Victims shall be monitored for suicidal impulses, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and other mental health consequences.

(e) Any adult inmate in mental health counseling for any reason shall be entitled to speak confidentially about sexual abuse.

(Added by Stats. 2005, Ch. 303, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 2006.)