Sexual abuse victims face long wait for counselling

By Shannon Deer
Herald Sun
January 16, 2016

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/sexual-abuse-victims-face-long-wait-for-counselling/news-story/fe08564f87c816c70930b552994fed59

Some sexual assault wait up to six months for counselling.

SEX assault victims are being forced to wait up to six months for counselling because of a funding crisis gripping services.

Waiting lists have blown out since the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into child abuse started in 2012 with hundreds of people unable to tap into urgent help.

Experts say waiting lists are now at record levels, with a spike in referrals because of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.

Some victims have turned to staging mini protests as a cry for help, with one man recently hijacking a Catholic Church service in a desperate plea for help.

Paul Levey, who was abused by notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale, interrupted the mass last month to lobby the church to offer more funding for victim counselling.

Victorian Centres Against Sexual Assault spokeswoman Carolyn Worth said wait times at the state’s 15 CASE centres were now between two and six months.

“There are areas such as Ballarat that have specific demand basically linked to the Royal Commission,” she said.

“Each time the presence of the Royal Commission has increased referrals.”

Ms Worth said demand had risen between 10 and 25 per cent across the state because of publicity around both the Victorian parliamentary inquiry and the royal commission.

“In our office, wait times used to be 2-4 weeks for a standard appointment now they are 2-10 weeks. This is better than many of the other services because we quite a large service.”

But Ms Worth said immediate counselling was always available for anyone in severe distress because of a recent or historic sexual assault.

The Federal Government allocated $45 million to support survivors of sexual assault in 2013.

But Ms Worth said CASA, who counsel a majority of sex assault survivors in Victoria, were overlooked in favour of national provider Relationships Australia.

“The Royal Commission not giving Victorian CASA funding was devastating,” she said.

“We knew that our demand would increase and that we would be required to support clients going through the Royal Commission.

“It is understandable that the Federal Government wanted a national provider but when you have a State as organised as Victoria it is plain stupid not to use the existing network.”

Relationships Australia could not be reached for comment.