Good news about ACC?

A blog entry from SOSA

Since the report of the Independent Review of the ACC processes came out in September we have not heard much about how the recommendations are going to be implemented. As always, in the vacuum created by lack of information, the brain does what it does best: It fills in the gaps. You could also say, it makes things up. So it is not surprising, that a few conspiracy theories are floating around the country. People are wondering whether ACC is going to take any of the recommendations to heart. Is ACC trying to wear down opponents of the infamous New Clinical Pathway by buying time?
We have kept our ears to the ground and people have told us the following ...

Click here to read more.

SOSA response to ACC review

A press release from SOSA

The independent review panel proposed 14 recommendations to ACC’s clinical pathway. Whilst ACC are yet to agree on all recommendations, SOSA welcomed the immediate commencement of 16 counselling sessions granted to "new and/or existing claimants".
Ken Clearwater, SOSA board member who also spent two years as a member of TOAH-NNEST on the ACC Service Improvement Project in conjunction with Government for the Taskforce on Sexual Violence, is pleased “the Government has accepted that the clinical pathway was damaging and wants to make changes”.
SOSA President Gudrun Frerichs remains skeptical. “Although the report represents very well the concerns of survivors and mental health professionals, the recommendations formulated are quite vague and give ACC a lot of room to dodge the items.” Gudrun is concerned that whilst the recommendations are a step in the right direction, any improvement for survivors hinges on the independent supervisory panel [yet to be established] to interpret those recommendations. “It appears that ACC has actually not had a change of heart but is rather bowing down (reluctantly) to the pressure of the review panel.”
There is no disputing that the recommendations made by the panel are a positive step forward but concerns are being raised about just how or if ACC will implement any of the proposed changes. Given the report by the Otago Daily Times from Monday, 20 September, ACC plans to cut a further 1150 long term claimants from their list.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and maintain public pressure for all those recommendations to be implemented,” said Gudrun Frerichs.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE1009/S00125/sosa-response-to-acc-review.htm

Survivor satire

A comment from the SOSA blog by Vee

Wow, ACC gets to have a 10 year recovery journey and we get to fund it - rather ironic isn't it.
I was thinking about how we should be showing our solidarity by 'coming out' as survivors and getting some badges made up and wearing them - to support each other but also to have the message about what ACC is doing more in people's faces.
Anyway, having the rather warped sense of humour that I do, I came up with the following and thought I would share as someone might get a smile out of what is such a crap situation. They are very scarcastic and so I apologise in advance if anyone finds them offensive!
Here goes:
"Not only did I survive sexual trauma but I survived ACC's new 'clinical pathway' too."
OR
"My mental injury is PTSD. What's yours?"
OR
"I'm mentally injured. What's ACC's excuse?"
OR
"I wish I could pick and choose which bills I got to pay like ACC gets to pick and choose which DSM IV illnesses they get to fund."
OK and last but not least
"I'm doubly lucky because I got fucked by ACC and a child molester."
Can anyone else think of any?

http://gfrerichs.typepad.com/sashui/2010/07/acc-forecasts-surplus-of-22-billion.html?cid=6a00e54ef0a44688330133f256265d970b#comment-6a00e54ef0a44688330133f256265d970b

Dancing star supports abuse summit

A news report from TVNZ

A Kiwi celebrity is putting his weight behind New Zealand's first ever Sexual Abuse Survivors' Summit drawing on his personal experience to help others.
Aaron Gilmore of Dancing with the Stars fame was abused for more than five years and will draw on his experience to be a key speaker at the summit tomorrow.
He was just 12-years-old when he was first sexually abused by a woman 23 years his senior.
"When I first met her she was very, very kind and caring so to have someone that was showing that interest, it was like a second mum," Gilmore says.
The woman continued the abuse for more than five years.
"There's a real learned helplessness about it and also I saw it as my fault," Gilmore says.
However, the abuse did not stop Gilmore from going on to have a successful dancing career and now he is using that profile to raise awareness about male sexual abuse ahead of the summit.
Organising committe member Gudrun Frerichs says it is often much more acceptable for females to go to counselling or to seek help but males tend to deal with things by themselves.
It is thought the number of boys abused before they hit 16 is around one in eight but Ken Clearwater who heads the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust says it is closer to one in three.
"It's just the fact that men and boys really struggle to come forward in our male culture to talk about being a victim of childhood sexual abuse or even adult men who've been raped, it's really hard for them to come forward and disclose that" says Clearwater.
Some researchers suggest the country's prisons hold many male sexual abuse victims, which is because studies show males often respond to their abuse violently later in life.
The summit already has around 100 people registered to attend and less than a quarter of those are men.

Copyright 2010 Television New Zealand Limited
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/dancing-star-supports-abuse-summit-3598432

ACC said rape pain not enough, alleged victim says

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Michael Dickison

Just days after being raped by a stranger, a 22-year-old woman received a letter from ACC saying that her pain wasn't enough to deserve counselling, she says.
Stricter rules around ACC sexual abuse counselling claims introduced last year have meant hundreds - almost 90 per cent - of people who have faced sexual abuse have had counselling claims either denied or delayed.
"It's just another humiliation, you know, having a faceless government institution saying that you need to get over it as well," said the woman, who nzherald.co.nz has agreed not to identify. "I'm not unreasonable. I know this happens to a lot of girls. I know I'm not the only one. It happens to a lot of guys as well.
"I know there's limited funds. But just the cold and calculated way they tell you, and the fact that they tell you your experience doesn't amount to enough pain - it's just another humiliation."
The Auckland woman said that earlier this year a man dressed as a security guard had offered to drive her home, then took her to an underground car park and raped her.
She said she arrived home shivering, petrified and almost broken. She went to police the next day, and received an initial treatment and assessment by a counsellor.
About a week later, she got a letter from ACC stating that it would not pay for any further counselling because her mental and physical injury was not sufficient, she said. "It's one of those things that you think about everyday and you know it might break you, and they just told me I didn't have sufficient mental or physical injuries, in a letter. Like they have any idea," the woman said. "I don't understand how anyone who hasn't met me can decide what it means to me or if it's caused sufficient pain or not.
"It's hard enough for people close to me to understand what I'm going through.
"The way they word [the letter] is particularly insulting. They know nothing about it. They've never met me. They know nothing about me."
The man accused of the rape is awaiting trial, expected to take place late this year.
A psychotherapist for sexual abuse, Christine Stewart, said many of her clients had been overwhelmed when faced with ACC's requirements for diagnoses, and she no longer undertook ACC work. Some people had committed suicide as a result, Ms Stewart said.
Yvie Stewart, a sexual abuse survivor who has organised a hui for people who have gone through abuse, said some had been made to wait months for ACC counselling and many were on suicide watch.
Survivors of Sexual Abuse New Zealand's Gudrun Frerichs offered pages from a survey of therapists expressing frustration and "distress" at having to put clients through the diagnosis process. The new rules restrict ACC counselling to people who have "a diagnosed mental injury resulting from sexual abuse or assault".
A form "to help determine cover for a sexual abuse claim" is available on ACC's website, to be filled out by accredited doctors. It asks five questions under "mental injury", covering a "full narrative description of the presenting signs and symptoms of mental injury", treatment history and diagnosis results.
ACC claims manager Denise Cosgrove told the Herald yesterday that this was laid down by law, but ACC was for many years "acting beyond its mandate and providing services to people not covered by its legislation".
An ACC spokesperson was not immediately available today to say what criterion likely saw the woman disqualified.

Copyright 2010 APN Holdings NZ Ltd
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10652802&pnum=0

ACC failing to help most sex abuse victims

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Simon Collins

Almost 90 per cent of accident compensation claims for sexual abuse counselling have been either turned down or held for more information since tough new rules came into force last October.
Official figures from the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) confirm reports from counsellors that hundreds of victims of rape and other sexual abuse are being turned away from counselling.
Thousands more have been scared off applying for counselling, as the numbers applying have halved from a reported 550 a month last year to an average of 250 a month in the first six months after the new rules came into force on October 27.
Only 178 of the 1498 victims who applied for counselling in the six months to April 30 were accepted for counselling, an acceptance rate of 11.9 per cent.
Comparative data for recent years is no longer available on the ACC website, but ACC said in 2001 that 93.8 per cent of the sexual abuse claims received in the year to June 2001, or 5229 claims, were accepted.
A panel appointed by ACC Minister Nick Smith to review the new rules has agreed to attend what is said to be the world's first "sexual abuse survivors' summit" to hear submissions at the Auckland University of Technology's North Shore campus on Sunday. Written submissions to the panel close today.
Rape Prevention Education survivor advocate Louise Nicholas said the summit was initiated by counsellors who were concerned that they could no longer help many of the victims of sexual crimes who came to them. "It's inhumane what's going on," she said. "The good thing about it is that this review panel want to attend the summit so they can talk to survivors face to face. We are looking at anywhere between 100 and 300 people if not more."
The new rules restrict ACC counselling to victims who have "a diagnosed mental injury resulting from sexual abuse or assault".
ACC claims manager Denise Cosgrove said this was laid down by law, but ACC was for many years "acting beyond its mandate and providing services to people not covered by its legislation". She said almost half (46 per cent) of the claims rejected in the six months to April came through a new emergency health service for sexual abuse victims and were declined "because at the time of lodgement for most people there is no mental injury, only an acute event".
Other claims were rejected because the client decided not to accept help (18 per cent), did not provide enough information (18 per cent), had "no new or clear mental injury" (7 per cent), the mental injury was not clearly due to the sexual abuse (6 per cent) or the sexual abuse was not established (4 per cent).
The Psychotherapists' Association representative on the ACC's sensitive claims advisory group, Kyle MacDonald, said even where a victim had been diagnosed with a mental illness, it was often difficult to pin the illness solely to being raped or sexually abused. "With childhood sexual abuse where there may be a 20-year or 30-year delay between abuse and presentation [for help], ultimately you can always find a reason to decline claims if you look hard enough," he said.
Counsellors' Association representative Elayne Johnston said ACC assessors did not seem to realise being raped was different from breaking a leg. "We're talking about people who've had a crime committed on them," she said.
Dr Barbara Disley, the former Mental Health Commission head who leads the four-person review panel, said the panel had met several professional associations and planned further meetings next week. She said the panel hoped to report back to Dr Smith by July 31.

Copyright 2010 APN Holdings NZ Ltd
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10652658&pnum=0

Feel the fear and do it anyhow

A blog entry from SOSA

Since we have decided to start SOSA NZ and organise the summit - which is only 6 days away - we have had a very mixed bag of responses of which the most heart wrenching were connections we have made with survivors...

Read the rest of this entry at http://gfrerichs.typepad.com/sashui/2010/06/feel-the-fear-and-do-it-anyhow.html

ACC Review Panel joins conference

A press release from SOSA

The government-appointed Independent Review Panel for ACC’s contentious new Clinical Pathway joins others at SOSA’s (Survivors of Sexual Abuse) invitation for June 20th inaugural Summit at AUT North Shore Campus.
This gives survivors the opportunity to have their say about what services they need from ACC, as well as have fun, be inspired and pampered, take back power, find their voices and unite.
“It's about time survivors had their say,” says the initiator of this important day, Dr Gudrun Freirichs. “The NZ government and ACC are part of the silencing by relying heavily on the medical profession and labelling us mentally ill. If we don’t fit the diagnosis, they are washing their hands of us while our perpetrators get unlimited help and counselling in prison programmes or the SAFE Network.
“Why lock up sexual perpetrators if what they do to their victims doesn’t warrant government support?” she asks. “Given that 1 in 4 females and 1 in 10 males experience sexual abuse by the age of 18 means that there are plenty of perpetrators out there interested in silencing us.”
Dr Freirichs goes on to say that sexual abuse destroys individuals and families. “This has to stop”, she says. Frierichs encourages speaking out, “Survivors need to know they are not alone.”
Well-known survivors Louise Nicholas and Aaron Gilmore from Dancing with the Stars will speak at the hui. Artist Tania Blomfeld organiser of “Courageous Women” t-shirts is running the art workshop, while Labour MP Lynne Pillay will give the forum a political edge.
Join the fight for recognition and better services by registering at www.sosanz.com until Friday 11th, or pay $20.00 at the door. SOSA organisers are encouraging registration using a pseudonym, should that feel more anonymous.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1006/S00086.htm

Sexual abuse survivors fight back after support is cut

An article from Te Waha Nui by Michelle Norton

Feeling neglected by the Government’s ACC shake-up, a group of sexual abuse survivors, counsellors and therapists have taken action.
Those who have been sexually abused are now required to prove a mental illness to get help and are now only given 16 weeks of counselling.
Survivors of Sexual Abuse NZ (SOSA) have organised a summit to be held on June 20 at AUT University’s Akoranga campus.
Karen Andersen, one of the organisers, said the organising team was a group of around 10 people who were either therapists or sexual abuse survivors and some who were both.
Yvie Stewart, a sexual abuse survivor and one of the sunmit organisers, said they were hoping to fill up the lecture theatre with around 200 people.
The summit programme has several guest speakers, including sexual abuse survivor Louise Nicholas, Labour MP Lynne Pillay, Denise Ritchie from End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Commercial Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) and Ken Clearwater from Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust (MSSAT).
Stewart is also going to speak and she said it had taken her a while to be able to do so. “It was like stepping through an iron door that I had in front of me and coming through it.”
She said it was more than just a summit. “It is about how we can help where the Government is not.” She said they wanted to send a message out to those who have been sexually abused were not seeking help.
Andersen agreed. “Many survivors feel so alone and have been put back socially.” She said everyone affected by sexual abuse had a different healing experience and recovery was about “finding one’s own strength”.
Labour MP and associate spokesperson for victim’s rights Lynne Pillay said she willingly signed up to speak at the summit. “I am very in awe and impressed with all the work that’s being done. I really welcome the summit.’
Pillay said she encouraged people to take part in the independent review of ACC in June.
Andersen said there may be a small number attending the summit that want to take political action such as write letters to Parliament but this was not the intent. She said they were hoping to provide “a sense of wellbeing, a sense of being inspired”. “They can see that others have forged ahead.”
Pillay said survivors of sexual abuse had been badly treated by the policy changes. “We need to return to the previous system where survivors were given the help they need and deserve.
“The majority of people are either being denied help or are languishing, waiting to see whether they will get help.
“I think that the way they’ve been treated is abhorrent.”

http://www.tewahanui.info/wordpress2/?p=3519

The Independent Review of ACC's Clinical Pathway at the Summit

A blog entry from SOSA

The government has appointed a panel of four professionals with the task to review ACC's new Clinical Pathway. Survivors, therapists, and other health professionals are invited to make submissions for the review panel to consider. Submissions can be sent to: ClinicalPathwayReviewSubmissions@researchnz.com.
The members of the Review Panel have agreed to accept our invitation to come to the summit so that attending survivors have the opportunity to talk to them about their experiences with the new pathway. This is a unique opportunity for survivors to be heard.
So don't delay and register here for the summit. Not only will you have the opportunity to speak to the review panel, you also can listen to inspirational male and female speakers, part take in interesting workshops, and try out some lovely pampering like massage or yoga.

http://gfrerichs.typepad.com/sashui/2010/06/the-independent-review-of-accs-clinical-pathway-at-the-summit.html

Louise Nicholas to open inaugrual SOSA NZ summit

A press release from SOSA

Nine months ago the conditions under which sexual abuse survivors could gain support under ACC changed. In the meantime 95% of survivors have been denied the professional help they need. Cuts continue to be driven under the “new clinical pathway” disguise, despite wide-ranging protests that seem to fall on deaf governmental ears. From this, the need arose to bring together survivors for networking and to find alternative ways towards recovery. This gave birth to SOSA (Survivors of Sexual Abuse) a non-profit, bi-cultural organisation. Like-minded volunteer survivors came together to create a day of unity, strength and inspiration.
SOSA’s vision is to carefully lift the shroud of silence and thereby re-claim power from a political and social environment currently perceived as re-traumatising and marginalising. We believe this summit is not a 'one-off', but the first of many. SOSA is being established as a charitable society that can then function as a survivor union, organising summits, giving courses, becoming politically active, and maybe even striving towards generating a funding source for those survivors who struggle to get funding for treatment.
This inaugural day-long hui takes place at AUT on the North Shore on the shortest day of the year – Sunday 20th June 2010. The symbolism of the darkest night of mid winter represents the darkness that many face when beginning their journey of recovery from such trauma.
A song written for this event will open the day at 9am. Louise Nicholas will pave the way for 8 other inspiring speakers, including MP Lynne Pillay to talk about their courageous journeys. Working through trauma can be debilitating and excruciatingly painful. Shame, self-blame and self-hatred are often taken on by survivors until the are able to give back these feelings to whom they really belong – the perpetrators of the abuse.
Creativity release is one way of working through this healing journey, therefore art and writing/poetry workshops will be offered for those in a creative mood. Wellpark College of Naturopathy are in charge of encouraging self-care – participants will enjoy safe massage, relaxation, aromatherapy, yoga and Ayurvedic ways of pampering. A soothing, meditational dance workshop will be led by an experienced mind/body therapist for those who prefer to be more active. So much choice, do it all, or just chat, mingle and have fun!
Comfort spaces will be set aside for those who may require a quiet space. Other survivors will display their crafts – harakeke (flax) weaving will be demonstrated and stunning bead work can be bought. New and second hand books about healing will be for sale. Nourishing and nurturing soups for lunch, teas and coffees are all included in the entry fee.
An informal forum will take place before day's end to korero about finding ways of getting better services, and the much needed help for survivors of sexual abuse. These findings will be delivered to government and will clearly demonstrate that survivors know best what works for them.
The gathering will take place with safety for all in mind. Places are limited so register now on www.sosanz.com. The entry fee is $15, going up to $20 a week before the summit to cover the cost of food. It is essential to register on the website beforehand.
We welcome all survivors, their supporters or those affected by another’s abuse to come into the light and join us on this important day in history. Please register at www.sosanz.com as soon as possible as numbers will be limited. Entry will be gained only by registering on the website and with a month to go, the time to do it is now!
We are unashamedly asking for support and donations, so that we can finance this day of hope. Please, push the donate button on www.sosanz.com and help survivors gain voice and advocacy. We very much appreciate your support.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1005/S00256.htm

Survivors

A blog entry by Kyle MacDonald

In these enlightened times we deliberately choose to use language to more accurately describe the types of attitudes we think are morally important for society as a whole. For this reason we refer to people who have experienced sexual abuse as survivors, and try to avoid calling Maori cannibals ...

Read the rest of this entry at http://www.psychotherapy.org.nz/index.php?page=blog

Survivors' experience with the new ACC pathway

A blog entry from SOSA

We are still collecting responses from survivors about their experiences with the ACC process in the last 10 months. If you haven't done our survey yet, go to the survivors survey and make your voice heard. The last question in that survey was "comment on your overall experience with the new ACC pathway". This is what people had to say ...

Read the rest of this entry at http://gfrerichs.typepad.com/sashui/2010/05/survivors-experience-with-the-new-acc-pathway.html#