Months-long delays for rape victims' ACC support

A news report from Radio New Zealand by Sarah Robson

People who have been raped or sexually assaulted are sometimes having to wait months to access ACC-funded specialist support services.
Some counsellors and therapists in Auckland have lengthy waiting lists for appointments and others are not taking any new patients.
One woman, Jennifer*, was trying to find a new counsellor. She had gone through the process of reporting a historical rape and needed support. She started contacting people on ACC's list in the Auckland area.
"I found that there was roughly a two-month wait list, minimum, to see most counsellors. I mass-emailed many on the ACC list and many said that they were not taking on any new clients," she said.
"I found this quite distressing."
Through sheer luck and persistence, Jennifer has been able to find a new counsellor.
She said she was not impressed that she had been repeatedly told she would have to wait to get the help she needed.
"People who have been sexually assaulted often become suicidal or have other mental health issues. I found that a 60-day wait or longer to get funded counselling was very poor and not all survivors have the means to pay for a private counsellor."
HELP is an organisation that provides specialist support services to victims of sexual abuse and assault in Auckland. Executive director Kathryn McPhillips said, like other providers, it was facing delays for people trying to access its counselling or therapy services.
"That delay can be anywhere from a few weeks, up to six months, maybe even eight months at times," she said.
"Our crisis service provides support during that time, so people can ring in or they can have acute sessions with us if they need to, but yes, it can be months that people are waiting."
Ms McPhillips said victims were often reluctant to seek help until their situation became desperate.
"It's something people do usually when they've hit the wall, so when they feel like they're in crisis or they can't hold on anymore, or they really need this thing solved in their life, or the offender is coming out of prison. There's all sorts of things that trigger people to that point of needing help."
Part of the problem was changes made by ACC in November 2014, which reduced and removed barriers for people to access support after experiencing sexual violence, Ms McPhillips said. That led to an influx of people seeking help - without the necessary workforce there to cope.
"I think that people who were not able to access counselling before because it required some additional payment, once it was free then a whole lot of people were like, 'yes, I need some help, please help me now'.
"To be honest, services haven't been able to keep up with that demand."
Ms McPhillips said they needed more qualified staff, but they lacked the funding to do any specialist training themselves. However, the government had committed more resources to the sector which should help longer-term, she said.
Andrea Black from Rape Crisis said it was important that specialist support services for survivors of sexual assault and violence were adequately resourced.
"If you don't have enough people on the ground to provide that service, or enough resources to do that, it's really distressing.
"It's really upsetting for workers, for volunteers, for our skilled workers, but even more so for families who may have to wait for days or weeks to access a specialist support person," she said.
In a statement, ACC said it was aware of delays for counselling services in areas like Auckland, Dunedin and Rotorua, and was looking into why demand for services was greater than the number of providers. It said it was encouraging providers to employ more staff, and was working with professional organisations and tertiary institutions to boost the workforce.
ACC said its goal was to have no significant waiting period to accessing counselling and therapy services.
* Name has been changed

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/337261/months-long-delays-for-rape-victims-acc-support

© Radio New Zealand 2017

Rape victims wait months for help

An article from the Dominion Post by Michelle Duff

Young rape victims are among those being forced to wait up to three months to see a counsellor, as sexual violence support services are stretched to capacity.
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has called for a nationwide review into the sexual abuse support sector, as agencies call for funding to be linked to crime statistics.
The number of police victim referrals to sexual violence agencies has more than doubled in the past year in many centres, with a 21.9 per cent jump in sexual crimes reported in Wellington last year. Nationwide, reported sexual assaults rose by 14.9 per cent in 2011 and 1.3 per cent in 2012.
"It's a major social issue that's not going away in a hurry," Wellington Sexual Abuse HELP foundation manager Helen Sullivan said.
"We have seen a big increase in referrals in the last couple of years . . . between 600 to 700 new referrals coming to the agency each year. For us to say, ‘You're going to have to wait, pack away all your feelings and issues and wait for a couple of months,' is just not ideal," Sullivan said.
HELP offers a free service to men, women and children as young as 8. It has an agreement with police, who refer sexual violence victims to it. It received about $200,000 from Child, Youth and Family, making up the shortfall in grants, donations, and ACC sensitive-claims funding, Sullivan said.
But many crisis centres had come to rely heavily on the Ministry of Social Development's community response fund, introduced in 2009 during the economic downturn. It was stopped last year. For HELP and Wellington Rape Crisis, this amounted to $50,000 and $23,400 a year that they now had to find elsewhere.
Wellington Rape Crisis manager Natalie Gousmett said the struggling sector was in desperate need of dedicated funding. In the past three years, the number of people seeking a social worker at Wellington Rape Crisis had almost tripled.
"We would like to employ another counsellor, but we just can't. We know what we're doing is very important and very effective, but we can't fund it."
Evolve Wellington Youth Services, which provides health and social services for young people between 10 and 25, has just moved into bigger premises to meet increased demand. Manager Kirsten Smith said they were "stretched thin", with a wait of two to three months for counselling.
Manawatu Abuse and Rape Crisis support had seen a 60 per cent increase in police referrals in the past year alone, manager Ann Kent said. It was likely counselling services would be cut back by up to 14 hours, because of the funding shortfall.
Auckland HELP crisis services manager Aimee Stockenstroom said it had a "massive" waiting list for children, with 12 waiting to be seen.
"The police are doing a great job, but it would be great if the increase in reports of sexual assault and our funding could be linked."
Bennett said she had taken responsibility for the sexual violence support sector this year.
"I am currently investigating the funding provided to the sector to determine exactly where it comes from, what it is provided for, and if any of this money is being used to cross-subsidise other services.
"I'm also planning to look into the nature of services being provided by organisations around the country, and how accessible those services are for the people who need them."
Police did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.
ACC is currently redesigning the way sensitive claims are paid, which could mean that more agencies would become eligible for funding.
In 2012, Hawera Rape Crisis was forced to close, Auckland HELP had to shut down its 24-hour support line, and Wellington Rape Crisis almost closed one day a week until community support allowed it to stay open.

© 2013 Fairfax NZ News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/8723276/Rape-victims-wait-months-for-help

Help for rape victims under threat

An article from Stuff by Kirsty Johnston

Rape and sexual assault victims in Auckland may lose access to the city's only 24-hour helpline due to a funding shortfall.
The HELP Foundation will be forced to lay off specialist staff and cut services after the Government refused it $200,000 to keep the line going, spokeswoman Aimee Stockenstroom said. News of the shortfall came despite a commitment from the Government to work closely with HELP to establish a sustainable telephone service for the future in December 2011.
"For victims of sexual assault and rape, the potential to suffer devastating mental health consequences is high and early intervention must be seen as a survivor's right," Stockenstroom said.
HELP takes about 12,000 calls a year from victims of sexual assault and rape, or around 250 calls a week. Stockenstroom said one in five women were sexually assaulted or raped in their lifetime.
"It is not ethical, and shocking for us to think in the middle of the night when the terror can be the most overwhelming, there will no longer be someone there at the end of the phone."
Green MP Jan Logie said it was appalling it had only taken the Government a year to renege on its commitment to the helpline. Logie said while sexual violence reporting rates were increasing, the Government was not reflecting that in its funding, despite widespread acknowledgement that the services were vital.
"In 2009, the Taskforce for Action for Sexual Abuse identified the urgent need to increase funding to support services," she said.
"This has not happened and now even the current meagre resources are being reduced."
Previously, the help line was funded by ACC, however that was axed in May 2009. Interim funding was provided until last year, when a cross-agency group comprising the Ministries of Justice, Social Development, Health and ACC was set up to discuss a long-term solution.
Stockenstroom said HELP wanted to continue to work with the Government but simply could not continue without enough money.
More information can be found on www.helpauckland.org.nz.
The foundation is also taking donations at any branch of ASB bank. A donations account will run from 12 October 2012 through to 26 October 2012. The account number is ASB: 12 3205 0175 043 00.

© 2012 Fairfax NZ News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7819530/Help-for-rape-victims-under-threat