A Whakatane counsellor says changes to ACC that allow 16 hours of counselling for sexual abuse victims is a desperately-needed improvement – but there is much more to be done.© 2010 Whakatane Beacon
From Monday this week, people with a new ACC sensitive claim, or with a new claim already in the system awaiting a decision, will be able to access up to 16 hours of counselling to ensure their safety and wellbeing.
Debbie Magee from Insight Counselling Services in Whakatane said there was still some details that needed to be finalised, such as what would happen to people who had been declined for assistance or who had relapsed since leaving counselling. “It’s a lot better than it was but it still needs to go further,” she said. “At least it gives survivors something in the meantime.”
The Government introduced a new sensitive claims “pathway” in October last year, which required people to be diagnosed with a mental illness as a result of sexual abuse in order to receive funding for counselling. The pathway required a doctor’s opinion and assessments from a psychologist or psychiatrist to determine whether a person has suffered a mental injury.
A group of Whakatane counsellors expressed their concerns to Labour MPs in March this year that the new legislation would result in at-risk patients not receiving the help they needed. They were also concerned they would end up providing their services for free, because they couldn’t refuse to help people in need.
The 16 hours of counselling is intended to provide support to survivors of sexual abuse and information gained by counsellors during these sessions would be used within the assessment process.
ACC general manager claims manager Denise Cosgrove said ACC had listened to concerns expressed by several groups that more support was needed but they would still be continuing to develop the sensitive claims process. “We still believe these are reasonable goals but acknowledge that the introduction of the pathway exposed gaps in the services available to people who have suffered sexual abuse,” she said.
Mrs Magee said ultimately she would like to see these people get a minimum 30 hours of counselling sessions, but 16 hours was better than nothing. “It gives us time to work with the person to help them cope better,” she said. “Hopefully it will give some survivors more confidence in coming forward again.” At the very least, it would likely include counsellors in the assessment process again, which was heartening, she said.
Victims rights spokesperson for the Labour party, Lynne Pillay, said this action did not go far enough and the cost cutting exercise should be stopped immediately. “Since National introduced this scheme thousands of sexual abuse survivors have been denied counselling,” Ms Pillay said. “Up to 90 per cent of claims for sexual abuse counselling has either been declined or put into a holding pattern since October last year.”
A Whakatane woman known as Rachel, who has been fighting ACC for compensation and funding for counselling for sexual abuse and whose case is being followed by the Beacon, will be entitled to receive counselling sessions under these changes. However, she said the process was still lengthy and, because ACC would likely be inundated with new claims, the system would be further bogged down.
Her advocate David Wadsworth said providing the preliminary counselling sessions was really just putting a band-aid on a more serious problem, which was ACC processes and the lengthy wait that claimants constantly endured. He said it was taking ACC an extraordinary amount of time to process claims and make decisions on whether or not they would be accepted since this new sensitive pathways legislation was imposed. Rachel, for example, had been in the system for nine months so far, awaiting a decision on her claim, despite her GP recommending she receive prompt and brief intervention to enable her return to work.
http://www.whakatanebeacon.co.nz/cms/news/2010/08/art10007697.php
No comments:
Post a Comment