ACC denies subsidisation of counselling for rape victims due to lack of “mental injury”

An article from Nexus by Hollie Jackson

The new rules regarding ACC-subsidised sexual abuse counselling has hit rape victims hard across the country. Now, in order to acquire funding for counselling, the victim must first be diagnosed with a mental condition caused by sexual abuse.
In February this year, a South Auckland mother of three died four days after her submission for ACC-subsidised counselling was denied. She had applied for help six months beforehand for sexual abuse she had suffered as a child, but was denied because she had not suffered “a significant mental injury”. She had reportedly suffered from suicidal tendencies and self-inflicted harm due to the sexual abuse.
Another victim, a 15 year old girl, is still awaiting a decision on her claim for counselling after she was raped over Christmas. The Association of Counsellors' representative on the ACC's sensitive claims advisory group, Elayne Johnston, said the girl hadn’t received counselling because ACC required her to be assessed by a psychologist to see whether she had suffered “a mental injury”.
ACC Minister Nick Smith announced last Monday that the new rules will be reviewed by a four person panel for efficiency. According to Dr Kim McGregor, the co-chair of the national sexual violence network, the four person panel fails to include any one of their “specialist experts that work day to day with survivors of sexual violence”.
Approved submissions for ACC-subsidised sexual abuse counselling has gone down from 472 in the first two months of last year to only 32 in the same period this year. Dr McGregor said almost all of the 600 to 700 private counsellors who were registered for ACC-funded work had also stopped taking applicants for ACC subsidies because of an ethical objection to labelling assault victims as mentally ill.

http://www.nexusmag.co.nz/news/acc-denies-subsidisation-counselling-rape-victims-due-lack-%E2%80%9Cmental-injury%E2%80%9D