Local & State Headlines

Facility offers free diagnostic exams

• An Albany medical center is funding clinical and forensic testing for diseases and pregnancy at no charge for a local nonprofit group.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — An Albany nonprofit group that helps provide care and compassion for victims of sexual and physical abuse will now be able to provide free testing for sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, thanks to a local medical facility, officials say.

The Lily Pad SANE Center helps victims of sexual and physical abuse deal with the physical and emotional trauma that often accompanies those types of attacks, Executive Director Karen Kemp said.

Now, Kemp and those at the center will have a new and necessary tool to offer their clients, and they couldn’t be happier.

“It’s just amazing that they would offer us these services,” Kemp said. “It really allows us to provide a more complete circle of care for the victims of sexual and physical abuse.”

The “they” in Kemp’s statement, the administrators and staff at Albany Area Primary Health Care, have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding with the center to provide testing for HIV, Hepatitis, STD’s and pregnancy.

The agreement makes the Lily Pad the only free and nonprofit sexual assault center in the state to offer that level of service, Kemp said.

The new services are regrettably necessary, Kemp says, in a town that sports between 180 and 200 rape victims and 400-450 sexually abused, physically abused or neglected or deprived children each year.

And in a time when the numbers are growing seemingly because of a downtown in economic prosperity for many, Kemp said a partnership to increase services without saddling the center with extra cost is a win-win for the community.

“Our bottom line is recovery, and we work very closely with both of our area hospitals. But for the first time we have a memorandum of understanding for funding 100 percent of the cost of this testing, and that is just phenomenal,” she said.