Victims of sexual assault may in the future be helped by a specialised response team that will provide holistic support and address legal, physical and psychological aspects of the trauma.
The Commission on Domestic Violence has put together a task group to explore setting up this sexual assault response team, commission chairman Marceline Naudi said.
The team would include a police officer, nurse, gynaecologist, social worker and a psychologist who would respond to cases of sexual abuse.
"The idea is to have a more sensitive service for victims of sexual abuse," she said.
Currently there is no formal procedure in place that ensures a professional social worker or psychologist are called to offer front-line support to victims of sexual abuse, said Anthea Agius, chairman of the Maltese Association of Social Workers.
Rather than being governed by procedure, this type of assistance was left to the discretion of the doctors or police officers who first came in contact with the victim.
"Sometimes it is not obvious to them that there are underlying problems that a social worker or psycho-logist would be sensitive to. Without such intervention, issues such as prostitution, domestic violence or drug abuse can go undetected," Ms Agius said.
She stressed that, apart from immediate assistance, it was important to follow up on the victims to tackle any post-traumatic effects.
There had been cases when the trauma suffered by the abused was followed by another trauma brought about during the investigation, she added. The task group would ensure more sensitivity towards such cases.
The group has already started meeting and is made up of representatives from the health and social policy ministries, social workers, police and Victims Support Group, among others.
Although the response team is still in its infancy, the group will establish how it would work and who would be eligible for the service. Once that work is done, a business plan will be drawn up and presented to the government.
A few months ago Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici announced that a serious offenders' register will be in place by the end of the year when a law regulating the matter should be finalised.
The register would include a paedophile register and would aim to protect people from perpetrators and keep track of those convicted of serious crimes.
The information contained within the list should be accessible primarily to law enforcement agencies, school authorities and those working with youths and children.