AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
March 26, 2015
Paul Bibby
Court Reporter
Victims of child sexual abuse are being “retraumatised” by inadequate Medicare-funded counselling services that are plagued by a shortage of properly trained practitioners, the head of the Australian Psychological Society has told the royal commission.
As the commission continued to examine the issue of redress for victims on Thursday, the executive manager of the Psychological Society, Louise Roufeil, said the maximum of 10 private counselling sessions provided for people with mental health issues under Medicare were nowhere near sufficient to support abuse victims.
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“Commencing a therapeutic relationship with a survivor and offering hope and then not being able to carry the treatment to fruition represents a failure again for the survivors,” Dr Roufeil told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
“The treatment response is itself retraumatising. This cannot be allowed to continue.”
Dr Roufeil said there were very few counselling services in the country which had practitioners who were properly trained in assisting victims of child sexual abuse.
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