| Clare Healy | |
| Other Names: | Clare Francesca Jacobs |
Clare Healy (also Clare Francesca Jacobs) is a New Zealand general practitioner, and has been described as New Zealand's foremost GP expert on medical care after sexual assault. In 2022 Healy was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to medical forensic education.
Healy is a general practitioner in Christchurch, and director of the Cambridge Clinic, which provides services to victims of abuse. She is a specialist GP and also has a Master of Forensic Science degree from Monash University.[1] Healy works for and with people affected by sexual assault, abuse, family violence and non-fatal strangulation.
Healy was a member of the Doctors for Sexual Abuse Care (now called Medical Sexual Assault Clinicians Aotearoa, MEDSAC) from 2000 to 2019, and was Chair from to 2001 to 2004.[2] Healy has delivered medical forensic training programmes, lectured in the New Zealand Police course for sexual assault investigators, and been an independent expert in hundreds of courts cases.[3] [4] Healy contributed to the Ministry of Health’s Family Violence Assessment and Intervention Guidelines, and played a "key role" in the Family Violence (Amendments) Act 2018 which introduced strangulation or suffocation as new criminal offences.[5] She also led the development of a non-fatal strangulation education programme through MEDSAC.
In the 2022 New Year's Honours Healy was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to medical forensic education.[6] [7]
Healy was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners in 2021.[8] The College described her as New Zealand's foremost GP expert on medical care after sexual assault.