**6. The first step for a successful approach: medical history taking (anamnesis)**

Upon her/his arrival, a case manager is assigned by the medical coordinator to the applicant. The second step is history taking. The medical/medicolegal history is a very important step that is essential for the investigation, and it is taken once and recorded for further use if the victim consents. It is crucial to take this history in the proper way, to make it less traumatic to the victim and organize it so that the victim will not be obliged to repeat it in other institutions (several times to police prosecution, etc.). For that reason, we have organized the availability for law enforcement officers or the prosecution to attend the history taking without being physically in the meeting room. The technical equipment is designed such that the related parties can attend the session by an audiovisual system, either within the center or online. The victim talks to a professional psychologist followed by a forensic doctor and talks once. Thus, the deeply traumatized victim is not obliged to repeat the story to the police, prosecutor, and doctor again and again. In the meantime, following the application of the victim, if the police or the prosecution is not informed, they are being notified by our legal team, and they are invited to attend the history taking if they would like to.

After taking her/his consent, the victim is asked to give the details of the event, date, location, and any information related to the perpetrator. This information forms a guide for the activities that will be organized to finalize the report of the case. There is a form with a series of structured questions related to the activities that the victim has been engaged in. The history is taken primarily by the forensic psychologist followed by the forensic pathologist or gynecologist. The medical information may or may not be given to the law enforcement or the prosecution, depending on the requirements of the case and the informed consent of the victim. The involvement of the psychologist is essential once the history taking is done to a deeply traumatized person (to a great extent), and it has to be professional in a way that the victim will be least affected. On the other hand, it has to be as detailed as possible because it is the only tool to be used for the investigation.
