Gudrun Frerichs, PhD

ACC: No more funding for sexual abuse counselling

Time 's up for sexual abuse survivors! Shock waves have ripped through New Zealand’s sexual abuse survivors and therapists in the last 6 months since ACC has announced changes to funding sexual abuse counselling. Under the disguise of “following best practice” and the “ interest of clients” changes have been implemented that have been branded as assault on common sense, ethical practice, and psychological understanding of effective treatment for victims of sexual abuse.

A ground swell of protest from counsellors, psychotherapists, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, and survivors has been ignored, fobbed off, or countered with slippery PR techniques applied by a strong front of government (Ministers and MPs) and ACC management who all sang the same gospel. Many therapists have withdrawn from accepting new ACC clients because under the new rules treatment cannot be provided safely and ethically.

Real Reasons for Change in Abuse Claims Policy Revealed

Press Statement from the New Zealand Association of Counsellors -
21 November 2009

ACC comes clean about real reasons for change in Sexual Abuse Claims Policy
ACC Southern Manager Karen Walsh, speaking at Fairlie Lions Club on Thursday 19 November  revealed that it is ACC policy to reduce the number of Sensitive Claims.

In October ACC introduced a new “Pathway” which involves forcing claimants to undergo a psychiatric assessment prior to their claim being accepted. This policy has had the effect that ACC wants; a serious reduction in accepted claims. The Sensitive Claims Unit are declining claims in much greater numbers than previously and therefore preventing the victims of sexual crimes from getting the treatment and rehabilitation they need and are entitled to in the law. 

 “ACC have been using spurious excuses for these changes” said NZAC spokesperson Elayne Johnston; “first they said that the changes were made to comply with Guidelines produced by Massey University. This has not stood scrutiny and Massey have distanced themselves from ACC and the use of their name to support punitive policies”.

“As we suspected the real reasons for these changes have now been revealed, it is about money not the provision of services to victims of sex crimes.”

“In the meantime many victims of sexual crimes are suffering the humiliation of psychiatric diagnosis, or not coming forward at all. Many of those who continue to seek help are having their claims declined. This is the equivalent to not being believed, a common experience of both adult and child victims of sex crimes.”

“Every day I receive emails from members about clients’ claims that are being declined for a range of reasons that include:
· Previous history of psychological problems
· Inability to access GP’s notes
· Claimant for childhood abuse being in a “dysfunctional family”.
· Incident took place “too long ago”.
 
Members also report a significant drop in the number of people coming forward for help; I believe the new scheme is putting them off.”

“It is very difficult ethically for our members to be part of a system that has so much potential for harm” says NZAC Ethics Convener, Eric Medcalf. “That this system has been created by health professionals with their own ethical codes, all of which will direct that they “do no harm”, makes me sure that in the long run they are vulnerable to personal ethical investigation”.

It is time that the government recognised the sham of this ACC change and commissioned an enquiry into services for victims of sex crimes.
 

Petition: Stop the Proposed Changes to the ACC Sensitive Claims Scheme

My colleague Kyle MacDonald initiated a petition to stop the implementation of the proposed changes to the ACC scheme. Please, find more information about the changes further down on this blog. If you too feel passionate about maintaining opportunities for survivors of sexual abuse, we invite you to sign the petition as well. Every voice counts! Here is what Kyle wrote:

The Art Of @#$&&*@!)>>*^%

I think our Universities have a lot to answer for - or do politicians learn to talk a lot without saying anything of substance in a political-party-membership-bootcamp and not at varsity?

This is what the member of parliament Patsy Wong had to say when questioned about ACC

Open Letter to Nick Smith, Minister for ACC

Please let me share with you a document that we have worked on for the last two weeks and that will be presented today to the Minister for ACC.

If you want to to make your voice count as well, write to your member of parliament.You can find the contact emails here! Or you write to the Dr. Peter Jansen, one of the chief medical advisers for ACC, [email protected]. Tell them how your counselling experience was, how long it took for you, and how it has impacted on your life!

Here is the open letter the NZAP has sent to the Minister for ACC:

ACC or How To Eat An Elephant

ACC is changing their rules! A lot of counsellors/psychotherapists are not aware of what is in the pine-line and there are - to put it mildly - shock-waves running through the profession. Something needs to be done, and maybe now is the time to do it! 

Its great to see that Rape Crisis is planning another meeting with ACC. Auckland Sexual Abuse Help is also about to approach ACC management. However, it's a huge task and everybody's help is needed to 'eat this elephant'.

ACC - Fairy Tale Or Nightmare On Elm Street?

You can ask anybody: Having ACC funding counselling for survivors of sexual abuse has been in the past a blessing for many. Certainly for clients because where can you get counselling if not from a psychotherapist or a counsellor? Public Mental Health services have long waiting lists and don't provide counselling. The cost of private therapy is often way out of reach of survivors. Thanks to ACC many survivors have been able to turn their lives around and recover from the legacies of childhood sexual abuse.

Improve Your Sex-Life

Sex is the most profound and intimate way people express their love to each other. Through the ever increasing access to information through traditional media and the internet we are very well informed about the many different ways people enjoy and pursue sex and sexual gratification in their lives. Even though one might think we have been 'immunised' and desensitised by explicit sexual depictions in public, in movies, and in the media, sex or the lack thereof is still a very reliable barometer of the quality of people's relationships with each other.

The Grieving Process

A lot has been written about the grieving process. The Kuebler-Ross model, also known as the grief cycle, is probably the best known description of the grieving process. Dr. Kuebler-Ross’ model offers 5 stages of grief that needs to be traversed for grief to be resolved. However, grieving does not always, or better hardly, follow a clean model of stages. Kuebler-Ross has already pointed out that grieving is a very individual process. People may wander back and forth in the grief cycle, repeat stages over and over again, and may get stuck at some point. The 5 stages are:

Grief And Social Support

Although loss is a normal part of life for everyone people are rarely prepared to deal with it on their own. One characteristic of human societies is that people come together and seek closeness with others in the face of traumatic experiences. Emotional attachment to supportive others is seen by many as the most important protection against feelings of helplessness and meaninglessness. Emotional attachment is probably the primary protection against feelings of helplessness and meaninglessness. Emotional attachment is essential for adults to make meaning out of their existence.