Select Committee hears oral submissions in inquiry on sexual violence services funding
Tue 15 Apr 2014
The Social Services Select Committee is currently hearing oral submissions in the inquiry into the funding of specialist sexual violence services. ...
The Social Services Select Committee is currently hearing oral submissions in the inquiry into the funding of specialist sexual violence services. Sexual violence agencies and support groups say the sector is in crisis, experiencing increased demand, lack of funds and the resignation of specialists due to burn-out.
Dr Kim McGregor, director of Rape Prevention Education, told the Committee $10 million is required to stabilise frontline services, alongside a 10 year plan to develop fully-funded services in the future.
Wellington Rape Crisis Manager Eleanor Butterworth said 20 percent of their time was spent on funding applications and reporting but the agency was still operating on a deficit of $100,000. She said funds needed to be put into education and prevention to reduce the overall cost of sexual violence: "When it's not being dealt with it just pops up somewhere else in the system – 75 per cent of our clients have mental health diagnoses."
A number of submitters spoke of the lack of specialist services for particular groups, including culturally specific services, people in rural areas, and transgender and intersex people. Spokesperson for Ngā Toanga o te Wairua, Ripeka August-Tampeau, highlighted the lack of skilled Māori counsellors. She said, "We need the training. We need training institutions to be held accountable for sending out councillors that are not equipped to deal with the diversity in this country."
Agencies working with offenders highlighted service provision gaps for those outside of the criminal justice system. Wellstop Chief Executive Lesley Ayland said most providers were funded for referrals from Corrections or cases involving young people, yet most victims were abused by someone they knew and did not want to press charges because they were reluctant to go through the court system. She said "That means we have no services anywhere in this country for adults who have sexually assaulted adults ... and have not been charged".
The Human Rights Commission highlighted the needs of disabled people, globally up to three times more likely to be victims of physical and sexual abuse and rape, with less access to physical, psychological and judicial interventions. Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue, said "We believe that sexual violence should be understood as an injury in and of itself, and that warrants support including counselling". She said "Sexual abuse can cause pelvic floor muscle dysfunction, incontinence and other problems ... A person with similar injuries from a jetski was able to get physiotherapy access for services ... But the person who had sexual abuse [which] resulted in those injuries was unable to. It just seems bizarre."
The inquiry was petitioned by Green MP Jan Logie. 996 written submissions were sent to Select Committee. 100 oral submissions will be heard from 1 April to 7 May 2014. Information about the inquiry can be found on the New Zealand Parliament website. Background information can be found in the previous Clearinghouse news story, Submissions open in inquiry into the funding of sexual violence services (August 2013).
Media:
Abuse victims plead for support, Dominion Post, 16.04.2014
Counselling groups make funding plea, Radio New Zealand, 16.04.2014
Plea to MPs to do more for sexual violence survivors, NewsTalkZB, 16.04.2014
Bennett agrees more funding needed for sector, Radio New Zealand, 08.04.2014
Sexual-violence inquiry reveals gaps in services and funding shortfall, NZ Herald, 08.04.2014
Sex abusers miss out on aid, MPs told, NZ Herald, 03.04.2014
Rape crisis centres overwhelmed, Stuff, 03.04.2014
Problems with sexual violence service funding highlighted, Newstalk ZB, 02.04.2014
Sex abuse victims need more help, Dominion Post, 02.04.2014
Plea for $10m now to fight sex abuse, Radio New Zealand, 01.04.2014
Image: Water Drop by Allan Foster. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Image: Allan Foster