An Eastern Bay woman who wrote a plea for help to opposition leader Phil Goff described how her despair and worry over the Government’s decision to change the guidelines on supporting victims of sexual abuse had contributed to her suicidal feelings.© 2010 Whakatane Beacon
The letter in part prompted Mr Goff’s third visit to Whakatane this year, where he met with the woman and her counsellor to gain a greater understanding of how she was being affected by the rule changes.
Those changes, introduced as part of the Government’s new sensitive claims unit in October last year, mean abuse victims must be diagnosed with a mental illness as a result of the abuse in order to receive ACC compensation. And under the new legislation the number of people eligible people who were approved for funding for such therapy had dropped from 312 in October 2008 to just 12 in February this year.
“I was lucky enough to have a stable and loving upbringing, so it is hard for me to come to terms with something like this,” Mr Goff said. “But there is no denying people like this have been through an absolutely traumatic experience. It is something that will blight their entire life unless the get help to move on.
“For a person who has been through that experience, but then gets the right help, they are able to turn their lives around and move on. We used to cover that under ACC, but they have changed the guidelines on who qualifies.
“Those figures are ACC Minister Nick Smith’s own figures, produced as an answer to a written question in Parliament. The initial figure they had was six, but the minister argued ‘No, it’s more than double that’. There’s still a drop of 300 people who are not getting the attention they need and Nick Smith being picky like that makes a farce of the entire situation.”
While in Whakatane Mr Goff also addressed a Grey Power rally attended by about 90 people, where he spoke of his concerns over the ACC changes as well as the effects of the Government’s predicted hike in gst to 15 per cent – tipped to be a staple of next week’s Budget.
http://www.whakatanebeacon.co.nz/cms/news/2010/05/art10007146.php
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