by Catherine Delahunty
The biker lobby has managed to get considerable public attention and support for motorcyclists’ grievances over ACC levies, but there is a group of more vulnerable people who cannot march in their thousands on Parliament grounds to defend their ACC access. Many of them cannot email Members of Parliament because it exposes them as possibly mentally damaged as a result of sexual violence. Who are these people?
A 2007 international survey on sexual violence showed that one in four New Zealand girls is sexually abused before the age of 15, the highest rate of any country examined. It also showed that Maori girls were twice as likely as their Pakeha peers to be sexually abused. One in six men are also likely to have been sexually abused. So it isn’t a tiny minority we are talking about, it’s the people on your bus to work and in the queue in the supermarket and its members of our families whether we realise it or not.
Last week while I was substituting for Kevin Hague on the Select Committee looking at ACC I asked the ACC chiefs why they had tightened the criteria to make it harder for sexual violence victims to get help. They denied they had changed policy. They said it was just being properly implemented.
So that was great news for victims who have mental health issues – they will only need to see three doctors and get re-traumatised through the process, and then they might get some help.
If these people had been beaten up, would they have to prove the effects in this way? Does ACC really understand what they are doing apart from trying to save money?
A colleague who has worked with these issues for years wrote to me and said:
Instead of reducing access to support and counselling, ACC should be putting more money into support and creating a new prevention fund to actually start reducing the incidence of sexual violence in our country.
Ain’t that the truth!
Published in Health & Wellbeing by Catherine Delahunty on Wed, December 16th, 2009
Tags: ACC, counselling, Kevin Hague, mental health, sexual abuse, sexual violence
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on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
I suspect the Bikers could be convinced to take up the cause of other victims of these changes.
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Maybe we should have a discussion/debate about what can actually be done to prevent the sexual abuse happening in the first place. It is something I am certain should be tackled.
Just as a side note, while it may be considered terrible that there is such a high incidence of rape and molestation, it is true that only a very small amount of those whom are on the receiving end will actually end up suffering any trauma at all. Because of this and the high incidence of rape and molestation it makes sense for ACC to use such measures as, because of the massive prevalence, even a small percentage of claims being false posses a massive cost on ACC and, through higher levies, on everyone else.
Additionally, it can hardly be called re-traumatisation as if the trauma did not persist there would be no interference with their ability to work sufficient hours to support themselves and as such there would be no legitimate reason to claim ACC compensation. The choice to make the claim belongs to the claimant and if they seek compensation then that compensation is only deserved if the trauma interfares substantially with their life; this only happens if it is constantly on their mind. If it is constantly on their mind there is little harm to come from their talking to experts.
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What I find particularly frightening (as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist) is that ACC is now systematically denying claims from children (male and female) who have been recently raped. The preponderance of evidence shows that sexually abused children who receive early treatment experience a good recovery – and that those who fail to receive treatment place a significant demand on the mental health and criminal justice system in later life. It is extremely short sighted of the National government to implement a policy with such drastic (and expensive) long term consequences for purely ideological reasons.
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@sapient: “… it is true that only a very small amount of those whom are on the receiving end will actually end up suffering any trauma at all.” Where is your proof of this? How could you possibly know? I will go out on a limb and say that you have probably not been sexually abused because you do not seem to understand the effect it can and does have on people’s lives. ACC’s sensitive claims unit spends $18 million a year rehabilitating and supporting victims of sexual abuse. That’s it. There is no risk at all of overspending or of wasting taxpayers’ money. How dare you talk about the effects of sexual abuse being “constantly on their mind” as if it just takes a bit of strength to get over. You try living with the effects of childhood abuse. It’s bloody difficult not to have it constantly on your mind when it affects every aspect of your life and has done since childhood. Counselling involves far more than just “talking”. It is damn hard work and is not fun or something somebody would choose to do. If you haven’t had a childhood where you have formed strong bonds with good adults and have felt safe and secure because you have someone to look after your best interests, that does affect your life forever. It can take a lot of hard work and support to silence the little voice telling you what a bad person you are to have had this happen, that you must have done something to “attract” the abuse and that therefore you are worthless and can’t expect people to treat you with respect or genuinely care for you. Just please think before you assume anything about how something as destructive as sexual abuse can affect people.
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