Slander + Submission

When I was just a girl, I was upset and hurt and scared. Somebody asked me what I was upset about and I told them.

Not long after I was bundled into the back of a car and told that if I ever, ever, said anything like that again that I would be charged with Slander and I would be sent to jail. Even though for my age I was well read and had a good education I didn't know what slander meant, I had to swallow the tears and the snot and the fear, but I looked it up later in a dictionary. SLANDER.

Part of what has limited me in writing on here is other's anonymity, but at times it feels it's too my detriment. Keeping others secrets is one thing, not able to speak the truth as it's affected me is I guess an on-going theme in my life. A weave of conditional relationships, but patchy and confusing.

I currently have some 'stuff' going through 'review' with ACC. I am not going to publish the process and outcome of that on here until there is a court appointed decision, but already the 'tactics' by ACC seem desperate, nasty and MEAN with what has come before the Tribunal so far. Would love to tell you what their latest tactic has been, or what they are hanging their hat on to expel part of my claim, here is ACC's Ethos apparently.

There are still things that happen today that I get confused about, I suffer confusion from, stuff that I am apparently not meant to or not allowed to talk about, even though it directly impacts on me, leaves me shaken, kneeling on my kitchen floor, sobbing my heart out with the pain of not understanding why some people do what they do, and say what they say. As I cry I feel that broken pieces of me come dangerously close to the surface, and each time it takes more and more to dunk those pieces back down in the dark.

For some reading this what I have written probably may have been written in pig latin, for others, will maybe have a knowing of what I'm trying to write.

There is an important thing that I need to have blogged about, it's the Review Panel for the New Clinical Pathway for ACC Sensitive Claims. SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE BEFORE JUNE 18 (so get a wriggle on). Anyway there is a kind soul who has written a step by step (how-to) guide to give ANYONE the chance to make a submission. I have recieved permission to reprint this fully on my blog, but that might have to wait a couple of days.

What I really want to say is if you know someone who has ever been the victim of abuse or sexual trauma or rape, hopefully by now, you are aware enough with what has been happening around support available that you would feel compelled be able to make a submission.
If you think you don't know anyone affected by this issue, then consider that a blessing in the lives of those you are close to, but...
Ponder This, if your daughter or son, if your brother or sister, or your best-friend or work mate was the victim of the crime of sexual assault, rape or abuse, what kind of care would you like made available for them? Because this isn't about just me, and Louise Nicholas, and a handful of other survivors who have managed to put their hands up publically, this New Clinical Pathway isn't just about the way in which current victims are being treated (or rather mistreated), it's also ABOUT HOW THE SYSTEM IN OUR COUNTRY is actually structured going forward. So do you want to know that if someone you know actually has to experience one of the most horrendous crimes on the planet that there will be HELP there available to them, safe, effective, meaningful HELP.
If you have the time and have any doubt, go back to the beginning of my blog, read through it again, imagining it is your cousin or your neighbour, would you want there to be some safe and helpful services available for that person.

Please make a SUBMISSION, while there is still time for our voices to be heard.