A CLINICAL specialist with not-for-profit Interrelate Dubbo will not be surprised if a new service brings a huge number of child sexual abuse survivors to its door, in part because of institutions like Fairbridge Farm School at Molong.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Di Frost will deliver the free service that was launched yesterday in the company of organisations with clients potentially in need of it.
Dubbo and six other Interrelate centres in NSW have been provided with a total of $1.9 million by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to provide counselling and support for survivors of sexual abuse and their families.
Ms Frost, a self-confessed survivor, expects that the previous existence of institutions housing children in the region will see the number of people accessing the new service "take off quite rapidly".
Among them were Fairbridge and the Allanville Home at Wellington where sexual abuse of children was proven in the courts, she said. UnitingCare Burnside, Centacare and domestic violence refuge Inspiration House were among the organisations that sent representatives to the Darling Street car park of Interrelate Dubbo for lunch, entertainment and insight into the new service yesterday.
Ms Frost expects much of her initial work will result from referrals from the attending organisations that address the "coping mechanisms" of their clients, ranging from self-medication to aggression.
"Underlying all that and the reason they are at that point in their life is childhood trauma," she said.
"People aren't just being aggressive and abusive because they like to be, it's because they are trying to survive what has happened to them in childhood."
The new service targets survivors of sexual and physical abuse in institutions, survivors of sexual abuse in the home and people distressed by the proceedings of the royal commission, including family members of survivors and employees of institutions where abuse took place.
Face-to-face and telephone counselling is on offer, along with the provision of information, referral to other services and help in engaging with the royal commission and debriefing afterwards.
"I think we will also have a lot of Aboriginal clients who have been abused on missions, which is covered by our funding," Ms Frost said.
"We can also help anyone who was in foster care and was abused."
Ms Frost called on the community to support the royal commission's community-based service by talking about child sexual abuse that "at the moment is so shameful, so pushed down, so hidden".
"The more we break down those barriers the better for all survivors," she said.
The new service's hotline is 1300 134 924. For more information visit www.interrelate.org.au.
