MP close to tears over stories of sexual abuse

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Simon Collins

National MP Nikki Kaye was almost moved to tears when survivors of rape and sexual abuse told their stories outside her office yesterday in protest at tighter rules for ACC-funded counselling.
The 29-year-old first-term Auckland Central MP told about 30 protesters that she had people in her own life who had been affected by sexual abuse.
"So I do have some understanding, so I'm going to sit down and work out what I can do in terms of raising this with ACC and with ministers," she told them.
When West Auckland mother-of-four Yvie Stewart talked about her lifelong struggle with mental illness since she was sexually abused as a child, Ms Kaye said, "I just want to hug you". Tears welled in her eyes as the two women embraced.
The group was protesting at new ACC rules which took effect this week, restricting free counselling for sexual-abuse victims to cases where a clear link can be proved between the abuse and a subsequent "psychiatric condition".
The rules also restrict counselling to 16 weeks at a time, with reviews by independent assessors to determine whether extra sessions can be funded.
Eliana Darroch, a 19-year-old beneficiary who went on a protest hunger strike from Tuesday until yesterday outside Ms Kaye's office, said abuse victims did not necessarily have a mental illness but still needed help.
"That [mental illness] is what counselling is meant to prevent," she said.
Louise Nicholas, who went to court to challenge three policemen who she said had abused her, said the new rules would bring huge costs to society because many women would be unable to get the counselling they needed.
Mrs Stewart, 47, said her four children now aged 9 to 20 would have suffered even more than they had if she had not been able to get ACC-funded counselling on and off since 1992, and intensively for the past five years.
"I used to cut and burn myself," she said. Her arms are still scarred. "I have attempted suicide and nearly died because I couldn't get the help I needed from community mental health.
"What they do is put you on pills. You start improving. Then they close your case. The pills only work for a little while because they are only dealing with the depression and not the root cause. The root cause is the abuse."
Ms Kaye said she could not guarantee that ACC or ministers would change the new rules but she promised to pass on the women's stories to them.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10606381

Counsellors support ACC review

Press release from the New Zealand Association of Counsellors

Counsellors support ACC review – but it’s not enough!
The Government is right to demand that the ACC Sensitive Claims Unit is reviewed, but this is not far enough, the new process still needs to be stopped.
Nick Smith has repeatedly followed ACC’s insistence that the new “pathway” for sexual abuse claims is a result of research undertaken by Massey University This is not the case, ACC’s management are hiding their motives behind a smokescreen of so called clinical expertise.
The New Zealand Association of Counsellors challenges ACC to properly reference the new pathway and to say which parts of the research support it.
“In general we have no issues with the “Guidelines” put out by ACC and researched by Massey University” says Eric Medcalf, NZAC Ethics Chair. “It’s the new administrative Pathway that is the problem. ACC management have chosen to selectively interpret the conclusions and use them for their own cost cutting agenda. This is a deliberate distortion of scientific research for commercial gain, at the expense of victims of crime.
“The Massey research rightly draws distinctions between the treatment needs of usually well functioning people who are sexually assaulted as adults and those who have been abused as children. Knowledge gained from brain imaging has shown that childhood experience of trauma affects brain development in ways that one- off attacks in adulthood do not. ACC is generalising from research on adult survivors and applying it to survivors of childhood abuse, and in doing so risks deterring survivors from seeking help, retraumatisation and a denial of proper and effective treatment ”.
The ACC pathway is being led by Dr Peter Jansen, a previously well respected GP and innovator in Māori health. However, his imposition of these new ACC rules appears to breach his ethical code:
“Commercial interests of an employer, health provider, or doctor must not interfere with the free exercise of clinical judgement in determining the best ways of meeting the needs of individual patients or the community, nor with the capacities of individual doctors to co-operate with other health providers in the interests of their patients, nor compromise standards of care or autonomy of patients in order to meet financial or commercial targets. (NZ Medical Association Code of Ethics, para 57)”.
NZAC urges ACC to stop the imposition of its new pathway whilst the review is under way and also to enter into meaningful dialogue with the professional associations on a fair, humane and scientifically justifiable service for the victims of sexual crimes.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0910/S00405.htm

Nikki Kaye picketed by sexual abuse survivors

Press release from the End Rape Culture Now! Collective

An End Rape Culture Now! Collective member today enters the third day of her hunger strike outside National MP Nikki Kaye's office. Sexual abuse survivors have been camping outside the Auckland Central MP's office since Tuesday to protest ACC cuts to sexual abuse counselling. Survivors will hold a public rally outside the MP's College Hill office at 12.00 noon this Friday 30th Oct where Louise Nicholas will speak.
The End Rape Culture Now! Collective asks that:
(1) Nikki Kaye advocates for counselling for sexual abuse and assault survivors in parliament, and discusses this with John Key.
(2) ACC supports the ACC-registered counsellors to develop a New Zealand tool to assess survivors for counselling
(3) ACC ceases to require the DSM-IV as the only diagnostic tool to assess mental injury and that a public announcement is made by ACC to this effect
Hunger Striker Eliana Darroch said "Our hunger strike is symbolic of ACC denying nourishment to survivors of sexual abuse, sexual assault and rape. To take away the counselling we need to recover, is like taking away our food. Nikki Kaye is my local MP and should advocate for survivors."
As of Tuesday, survivors have already been receiving letters from ACC stating that their applications for treatment are declined, and that required to attend a formal psychiatric assessment with a psychiatrist. "Restricting counselling access delays recovery and prolongs the trauma" says Darroch.
End Rape Culture Now! Collective are wanting answers:
With 1 in 4 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual abuse in their lifetime, this is a societal problem, not a personal one, and therefore needs to be addressed by the government. “This is an issue of crave public concern. ACC and the National Party need to be held accountable for the changes they have put through. What advice would John Key give a rape survivor who was refused treatment or made to wait indefinitely? What are people to do when they can't afford counseling” said End Rape Culture Now! Auckland spokesperson Priscilla Penniket.
No funded alternative system of counselling support has been proposed to replace ACC's current system, for those who do not qualify under ACC's changes.
ACC Minister Nick Smith yesterday announced that the counselling access restrictions would be reviewed in six months. "Survivors do not have six months, they need counseling now" says Penniket. One sexual abuse survivor has already committed suicide rather than submit to a psychiatric diagnosis. "Survivors do not want a psychiatric mental illness label, it's all very well to review this pathway in six months, but these DSM-IV labels affect peoples lives in the long term" says Penniket.
DSM-IV stands for the American Diagnostic Statistical Manual. New Zealand ACC counsellors are wanting to offer alternative assessment models that are more appropriate to sexual abuse survivors.
Hunger striker Eliana Darroch is feeling physically weak but in good spirits with strong support from family and friends. It is her birthday today.
A public rally in support of sexual abuse survivors, and against the changes to ACC, will begin at 12.00 midday, Friday 30 Oct, outside Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye's office, 82 College Hill, Auckland.
For more information,
www.stopcuts.blogspot.com
www.youtube.com/endrapeculture
www.endrapeculture.org

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0910/S00420.htm

ACC protest delivers 4000 signatures to Parliament

An article from the Press

Opponents of ACC's new guidelines for dealing with sensitive claims have delivered a petition with 4000 signatures to Parliament in Wellington.
Petition organisers said half of the signatures came from clinical professionals.
ACC Minister Nick Smith was unavailable to meet the petition's organiser, psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald, at yesterday's rally. However, Smith sent list MPs Michael Woodhouse and Nicky Wagner to receive the petition.
MacDonald said the number of professionals who had signed the petition sent a clear message to Parliament that the guidelines were wrong.
"It should be clinicians, not politicians, directing these guidelines, but an overwhelming number of people who signed it are professionals," he said.
Wagner said it seemed strange that so many clinicians had signed the petition when the Government had undertaken more than four years of consultation with professionals before announcing the guidelines, which came into force yesterday.
Labour leader Phil Goff, who met the rally, said the protesters had his party's full support.
Labour list MP Lynne Pillay said collecting 4000 signatures in under six weeks was "incredible", and called on the Government to halt the guidelines.
Opponents are concerned that the new guidelines will reduce access to counselling for sexual abuse victims and discourage them from seeking treatment.
Smith announced yesterday that the guidelines would be reviewed after six months.

© 2009 Fairfax New Zealand Limited
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3004438/ACC-protest-delivers-4000-signatures-to-Parliament

Professional disagreements?

A press release from the New Zealand Psychological Society and the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists

Responding to criticisms of the new ACC process for dealing with sexual abuse claims, the Minister for ACC Dr Nick Smith is reported in the media today as saying that there are “professional disagreements between psychologists and psychotherapists and counsellors about the changes to the management of sensitive claims”.
The New Zealand Psychological Society (the Society) and the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists (the College) is concerned by this statement because there are many serious concerns shared by psychologists, counsellors and psychotherapists about the new ACC procedures.
First, there is agreement that ACC does not appear to have been responsive to the feedback they have been given by a range of professional organisations involved in providing sensitive claims services and from the clients who use them. Some of the problems already identified in the earlier clinical pathway proposal remain in the new clinical pathway.
Second, requiring sexual abuse survivors to disclose their abuse to
more than one clinician is likely to be experienced as psychologically unsafe by many clients and may deter people from seeking help when they need it.
Third, the suggestion that sixteen sessions is sufficient to meet the needs of most sexual abuse survivors does not accurately reflect the range of experiences of sexual abuse (e.g. from one-off assaults to complex and on-going assault within familial relationships). These are likely to produce different reactions - both in terms of severity and type - requiring different treatments and different durations of treatment.
Fourth, while Psychologists endorse the use of evidence based practice, the requirement that a DSM IV1 diagnosis is needed to gain access to treatment will limit the number of people who can access care. Individuals not meeting the strict requirements of a DSM diagnosis may still be severely affected by trauma.
Fifth, the requirement for four weekly reporting is bureaucratically burdensome for clinicians and will intrude into the process of therapy, without contributing to successful outcomes.
Sixth, a pathway that limits the assessment of claims to clinical psychologists (as well as psychiatrists and those psychotherapists trained to use the DSM IV) is likely to put pressure on the available psychological workforce – already in short supply. There are many experienced counsellors and psychotherapists who have been providing initial assessments for ACC sensitive claims whose skills will be lost to the workforce as a result of this new pathway.
The Society and the College call on the Minister to listen to the shared concerns of the professional groups who work in sensitive claims and ensure that ACC processes and procedures appropriately meet the needs of claimants who require a sensitive, responsive, competent, and timely professional service.

http://www.ncwnz.org.nz/assets/Action/NZPsS-and-NZCCP-release-re-ACC-sex-abuse-claims.pdf