Manhattan —

Healthcare professional are trained to assess the medical needs of victims of sexual assault or trauma. The Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center HEARTS program aims to train healthcare professional to also comfort victims.

The BI-SLR HEARTS (Healing Emotions and Achieving Resilience to Traumatic Stress) program presented a workshop designed to help healthcare professionals better communicate with trauma victims. The program’s director, Dr. Jacob Ham, said the federally funded program strives to improve care for children and families who have suffered the effects of sexual and physical traumatic stress.