ACC - Turn Around OR Running For Cover

Starting yesterday there's been a flurry of activity online with Articles, Media Releases, Tweets and Blogposts relating to ACC Sensitive Claims.

The first I was aware of was through a couple of emails, one from a friend with a cut and paste version of the media statement & then, the latest Blogpost from Kyle MacDonald - "Off the Couch - Light at the end of the tunnel?"

Reading through this I also checked online and read the ACC Media Release on Scoop entitled "Extra support for sexual abuse survivors", but printed it off and went and sat down outside for a few minutes to read it properly, and digest WHAT IT ALL REALLY MEANS. (with the beginning of suspicious feelings at the use of the words "Provides Extra Support", when in fact there has been NO support for many months, does 'Extra' = 'drop in the proverbial bucket of crisis', AND is this a seemingly predictable National PR action of take everything away/threaten or action worse case scenario AND THEN once the terror of it all with time has sunk in, the 'HANDOUT' (pittance) is so gratefully received that 'The People' only see this 'White Knight Approach' to a big old dragon actually created by the Knight in the first place)

Firstly, and thankfully, that someone walking into a Counselor's/Treatment Provider's office, either through self-referral or through something like a GP or Hospital or even Victim Support referral, 'New Claimants/Victims' CAN GET IMMEDIATE HELP; This is a GOOD thing.. They will be able to see someone without having to wait weeks for 'Assessment' with nothing, and they WILL be able to make an appointment for the next week, and KNOW that it will be a subsidised appointment. Something that's been heavy in my heart through all of this is the people who have been raped last week, yesterday, or next week, or now need (cause it's always a 'need', trust me when it's not a 'want') to deal with their past trauma ARE ABLE TO GET IMMEDIATE assistance.

It was after popping on to Twitter this morning, that I suddenly felt enraged with some of the tweets I was seeing (not at the tweeter's themselves!), with the feeling that perception might be swayed that it's all on the mend, when that is not quite the case at all, YET. It was tweets like the following:

@NZStuff ACC reverses funding cuts for sexual abuse victims http://bit.ly/9XHdoN

@3NewsNZ Rape Prevention group welcomes ACC u-turn http://ow.ly/18x0lc

@TVNZNews ACC reverses funding cuts for sex victims: Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has backed down on fu... http://bit.ly/aURVuG #TVNZ News

@newsnz ACC reverses funding cuts for sex victims: Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has backed down on funding cuts... http://bit.ly/atvrTw

All of the above would LEAD ME (if I didn't know better) to think Everything Is Going To Be Ok With ACC Sensitive Claims Now. Phew! The People can relax.

IF THIS IS THE BEGINNING of a 'turn-around' with the Review Panel's Statement, Influence and Report coming in September heralding Serious Changes and Healing, then Bravo. (Click here for official Statement from Review Panel)

BUT what I propose and suspect to be the ACTUAL TRUTH around what is occurring is ACC (and in essence the National Party and Nick Smith) are scrambling for cover with the intitial report of the Review Panel's 'Concerns' and are offering an Option which is in fact the Same Option that was proposed by the Minister of 16 Subsidised Sessions when all this life & death Po-lava began last year.

We must not forget in our gratitude for this 'hand out' such realities as:

Real reasons for change in abuse claims policy
Sunday, 22 November 2009, 12:40 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Association of Counsellors
Press Statement from the New Zealand Association of Counsellors 21:11:09
"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" ... (click title link to read on for the details)

.
OR to QUICKLY TRUST ONE MEDIA RELEASE from THE SAME ORGANISATION that brought us:

Enhancing ACC support for sexual abuse survivors
Friday, 16 October 2009, 4:28 pm Press Release: ACC
ACC Media Release 16 October 2009
"Enhancing ACC support for survivors of sexual abuse with a mental injury
• Changes reflect four years’ work aimed at improving client outcomes
• ACC committed to working with sector to implement, review and refine changes
• New approach reflects evidence-based, best practice
From 27 October 2009, ACC will introduce some changes to enhance the way it manages sensitive claims – that is, claims for mental injury resulting from sexual abuse or sexual assault.
“The changes will initially apply to new claims only, and are designed to build on the level of care, understanding and support we currently provide to all clients who have survived the trauma of sexual abuse or assault but have a resulting mental injury,” says ACC’s Chief Executive, Dr Jan White." (click title link if you would like to read on and get to the real juicy stuff)...

However, (and I will be brief here, because I don't want to dilute the above)then I needed to work out what it meant for me, after the last 10 months I've learnt to be very careful indeed in paying attention to ACC Wording. What it means for me and many more 'like me' is TOUGH LUCK at the moment, just keep waiting out in the cold basically (and it's basically hailing golf-ball sized hailstones out there now). Call me skeptical, wary OR CALL ME A VICTIM (trying to Survive) OF MULTIPLE SEXUAL VIOLENT ATTACKS WITH PROVABLE DIAGNOSED PTSD THAT HAS BEEN THE VICTIM OF ACC'S DISRESPECT AND NEGLECT NOW FOR OVER 10 MONTHS, WITHOUT ANY OPTION OF SUBSIDISED CARE WHILE AT TIMES BEGGING FOR HELP.

Please consider that when you read the ACC Media Release by ACC involving
Ms Denise Cosgrove
"ACC sex abuse claims 'badly handled'"
And finally, in the midst of all the seemingly oh-so-positive spin on the ACC Sensitive Claims announcements, it was somewhat of a relief to read the following article to know it wasn't just me that is seeing through the cracks.

National Still Victimising Sexual Abuse Victims 11 August 2010
Media Statement by Lynne Pillay:
"National still victimising sexual abuse victims
The National Government’s decision to partially back down on a failed cost cutting programme that denied sexual abuse survivors access to counselling doesn’t go far enough, Labour Victims Rights spokesperson Lynne Pillay says." ...(please click the title link to read the WHOLE article, it is VERY enlightening)

Just a girl, in the world, worried for herself and her future.

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.