SupportingWomen and Community Health The Kootenai Health Foundation received a generous donation from two community members, Gratia and Bill Griffith, to help support the forensic nurse examiner program. The funds helped establish a room within the emergency department where survivors of domestic abuse can enter the criminal justice and social services system and begin to receive care on their paths to healing. Bill passed away in 2009 and Gratia in 2022. Both were beloved members of the community and had committed much of their life to helping others through the Kootenai Health Foundation and beyond. Gratia was especially committed to helping women find their place in the world after completing her master’s in applied behavioral sciences at 60 years old, noted her daughter, Georgeanne Griffith. Gratia went on to become an advocate for women and children across Idaho in several different capacities. Georgeanne said her parents would be honored to know their gift supported both her mother’s passion for helping women who are struggling and the couple’s combined desire to give back to their community. “To know that they made a difference in the life of even one woman honors their legacy,” said Georgeanne. adolescent and pediatric sexual assault examiner training, followed by hands-on clinical skills training. Ongoing education will consist of crime-specific training; for example, domestic violence, strangulation, human trafficking, stalking and more. “This will allow for our highly trained nurses to care for a larger population of patients, giving those patients access to the trauma-informed medical forensic care they need,” said Megan. This grant will also provide funding to Safe Passage’s Child Advocacy Center to help pay for a medical provider to perform follow-up examinations and exams outside of the evidence-collection window. This is a service Megan said is desperately needed. “Through this program, our goal is to better care for patients that have been the victims of crime and provide them holistic medical-forensic health care in a traumainformed manner to promote their safety and healing,” Megan said. She and her team hope to increase collaboration to better serve this population of patients—not only to help connect them with resources, but also to identify gaps and barriers in the social services system, making it easier for survivors to find and access services. “Our goal is that any patient that seeks our services feels supported, believed and empowered as they begin their healing journey,” said Megan. “We hope this ultimately creates a stronger and safer community.” KH . ORG 11 From left, Cara Nielsen, Kootenai Health Foundation president; Georgeanne Griffith; and Megan Lorincz, BSN, Kootenai Health Forensic Nursing programmanager.
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