Tailored support through specialist services


The Royal Commission made a number of recommendations to improve specialist services targeted at specific groups within the community. Recommendations under this theme focus on trauma informed therapeutic services and healing supports for survivors, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander survivors and survivors with disability.

Recommendations also focus on appropriate supports and responses for children with problematic and harmful sexual behaviours. Work to meet these recommendations will focus on improvements to:

Sexual assault services

The ACT Government currently funds services including the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, Service Assisting Male Survivors of Sexual Assault, Relationships Australia Canberra & Region, and Victim Support ACT.

The Canberra Rape Crisis Centre is staffed by specially trained workers and provides a crisis and counselling telephone support service, counselling and group work to survivors of sexual assault and their families and supporters, and 24 hour crisis call out service to police and forensic services. It also provides information, education, and training to community members, and other non-government members, government agencies, service providers and schools about the causes, effects and responses to sexual violence against women, children and men. The Canberra Rape Crisis Centre includes the Nguru Program which provides culturally appropriate counselling for members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community who have experienced sexual assault, and their families.

The ACT Government will undertake analysis and consultation with key stakeholders to determine its approach for meeting the Royal Commission’s recommendation about enhancing the capacity of specialist sexual assault services. This includes analysing funding agreements to address existing specialist sexual assault service gaps for adults and children, and providing advocacy and support and specialist therapeutic treatment for victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

The ACT Government’s findings and response will be provided at the Royal Commission’s 12 month review of the implementation of recommendations made in the Final Report.

Trauma informed therapeutic services

The Royal Commission’s findings highlight the importance of the Commonwealth Government and state and territory governments funding dedicated community support services for victims and survivors in each jurisdiction, to provide an integrated model of advocacy and support and counselling to children and adults who experienced childhood sexual abuse in institutional contexts. The ACT Government will work with funded services including the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, Service Assisting Male Survivors of Sexual Assault, Relationships Australia Canberra & Region, and Victim Support ACT to determine the scale of unmet demand and the most appropriate model to meet this demand given the size of the ACT’s population and proximity to NSW.

Therapeutic intervention is also important for assessing and meeting the needs of children with problematic and harmful sexual behaviours. This includes ensuring there is a network of specialist and generalist therapeutic services, ensuring clear referral pathways to access expert assessment and therapeutic intervention, and ensuring that services funded to provide therapeutic intervention are providing professional training and clinical supervision for their staff. The ACT Government will undertake work to ensure that all government and community services funded to provide therapeutic services to children and young people have contracts updated to include requirements for professional training and clinical supervision of staff. Under A Step Up for Our Kids, the ACT supports programs and service delivery that practice a therapeutic approach that is child-centred and family focused. These programs and services are evidence-based and provide developmentally appropriate interventions to children, young people and their families to strengthen children and young people’s connection to community and culture.

For example, the ACT provides trauma recovery services through Melaleuca Place, which aims to work with the child and their family and carers. Melaleuca Place supports children to enhance and maintain appropriate social and peer relationships. Melaleuca Place facilitates connections between children and significant people in their lives including parents, carers and those in out of home care services who contribute to the early identification and prevention of harmful sexual behaviours.

The ACT Government will undertake further analysis to determine the scale of unmet demand and the most appropriate model for treatment options for children with problematic and harmful sexual behaviours. This includes determining appropriate therapeutic intervention where there is involuntary engagement of children.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

The ACT Government is undertaking a review of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children involved in the ACT child protection system.  The review’s primary focus will be to inform system-wide improvements that will fully realise the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle in the ACT.  Placement of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child in out of home care is prioritised so that they are able to be placed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander relative or extended family members, or other relatives or extended family members wherever possible.

The Royal Commission recommends that Australian Government and state and territory governments fund Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healing approaches as an ongoing, integral part of advocacy and support, and therapeutic treatment service system responses for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. The ACT Government will undertake analysis to determine an appropriate approach and model based on unmet demand in the ACT.

Existing specialist services are provided through:

The ACT Government will also introduce arrangements to ensure that the needs-based funding arrangements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boarding students are sufficient for schools and hostels to create child safe environments.  This will involve consideration of the role of the Commonwealth and the appropriate balance of responsibilities between the Commonwealth and states and territories.

Disability

Currently, People with Disability Australia (PWDA) is supporting people with disability who may be affected by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. PWDA provides individual advocacy to those who are affected and are also running a comprehensive training program across Australia, developing awareness of the sexual and human rights of people with disability.

The ACT Government will undertake work to determine how to best support people with disability who have experienced sexual abuse in childhood as an ongoing, integral part of advocacy and support and therapeutic treatment service system responses, as recommended in the Final Report.

The work of the Royal Commission and the ACT Government’s response may bring up strong feelings and questions. Be assured you are not alone, and that there are many services and support groups available to assist. Some options for advice and support include 1800 Respect, Lifeline on 13 11 14 and the National Redress Information Line on 1800 737 377.