ACC sex abuse processes 'need review'

An article from Stuff by Paloma Migone

ACC needs to urgently review its assessment process for adults who were abused as children and left with mental health problems, an independent report says.
Dr Barbara Disley today released the second monitoring report of ACC's progress on the development and implementation of 14 recommendations given by a 2010 Sensitive Claims Clinical Pathway review. In the report, she said there were concerns within the sector over the processes around independent assessment for cover.
"While there have been improvements including the ability of the support counsellor to attend these assessments with the client, the narrow range of tools applied to determining mental injury and the limited number of professional groups who can administer these tools leads to bottle necks and delays in cover determination," she said.
"ACC needs to urgently review the assessment processes within the adult claims coverage context and broaden the range of tools and professional groups capable of undertaking these assessments."
Disley said it was particularly important for adult survivors of child sexual abuse as the needs of the group were often complex and required specialist knowledge.
"A specific focus on the needs of this group needs to be now initiated," she said.
The number of clients that moved through the cover assessment process was low, falling dramatically since 2007 to 2011 from 5919 to 235 respectively. It could be that the recently-implemented 16 support sessions available were sufficient for some clients, but ACC needed to ensure that the process of cover determination itself was not to blame.
Disley also said Maori must be given priority as progress in that area has been slower than expected. The process for children and adolescents in relation to accessing immediate support and moving through the cover process had improved however.
Overall, Disley found ACC had made "excellent progress" implementing one recommendation and good progress on another six.
"In the 18 months since the initial, independent review, ACC has made significant changes to the way it deals with sensitive claims, and these changes have seen considerable progress achieved in many years."
However, she said: "There's still work to be done in some areas."
The 2010 review, requested by then ACC Minister Nick Smith, made 14 recommendations, including that a process be established to independently monitor the development and implementation of the review's suggestions.

© 2012 Fairfax New Zealand Ltd

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7292703/ACC-sex-abuse-processes-need-review