Sunlight is the best disinfectant

An article from Beehive Chat by Tariana Turia

Last week's announcement by ACC to provide up to sixteen counselling sessions to sexual abuse survivors while their claim is being dealt was welcome news. Last year ACC implemented a new policy that required people subjected to sexual abuse to prove they had suffered a mental injury before they would pay for counselling.
I cannot think of a worse ordeal for anyone who has endured the life-changing crisis of sexual abuse, to have to then prove that it had affected their mental health and wellbeing. And so I am not at all surprised that when the Clinical Review Panel looked into the impact of the policy changes, they found that only half as many victims of sexual assault are applying for ACC support this year compared to last. But if that is not bad enough, many who do apply are declined or face significant delays in getting support. Fliss Newtown's comments in this newspaper over the weekend that she is receiving two new enquiries a week from sexual abuse survivors is consistent with other reports I have received over the motu.
A World Health Organisation study in 2007, found that one in four New Zealand girls is sexually abused before the age of fifteen, the highest rate of any country studied. The rate is even higher for Maori women and for women with disabilities. And yet despite the high rates of prevalence, sexual abuse is still something that society fails to recognise as being significant.
Sexual abuse has devastating impacts on the lives of far too many New Zealanders. It decimates your confidence, it can destroy your faith and trust in others, it literally throws your life out of balance. Childhood sexual abuse has been shown to effect educational chances; the impacts are played out in courtrooms and prison cells and hospital beds and drug and alcohol treatment units and psychiatric institutions.
I am pleased that ACC has recognised the importance of providing immediate support for sexual abuse survivors but we cannot put all the responsibility on Government agencies to fix this problem. Quite simply ACC is the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
Of course Government must ensure we have quality services available and effective programmes to provide immediate support for individuals and whanau dealing with sexual abuse. But most importantly we have to look in our own backyard and be sure that we are doing everything we can to ensure the safety of our own family and community. It is unacceptable to know that sexual abuse is going on and to do nothing about it.
I know that for families facing this issue, the road to creating a safe environment is long and fraught with so many challenges. But we must mobilise public support and attention to ensure we bring it out into the open. As they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. The bright light of scrutiny and openness enables all of us the opportunity for change.

© 2010 Maori Party
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