Counselling provided by ACC - changes

Hi everyone, I spoke to a woman yesterday who is an ACC accredited counsellor and she is shocked to hear that ACC are cutting services for sensitive claims (and possibly other areas - we didn't discuss this). The NZ Counsellors group will be strongly advising ACC this is NOT a good thing to happen. She said if I was to apply for a 'return to counselling' now, I probably wouldn't get approval for any sessions.

What can we do from this site? Any ideas? Some of us were sexually abused as children and/or adults and may need/want counselling but can't afford private or higher fees. This is another cost-cutting strategy by ACC.

People need to know that the 'safety net' is there when or if needed. Some people were never depressed until after they'd been abused.

I look forward to any thoughts, ideas, input. .......... Daze

To put it bluntly, TBBD site would not exist if it were not for the work I did on myself, via the support of funded counselling from the ACC Sensitive Claims Unit in 2006/2007.

It wasn't a whole heap of fun, but it helped me find ways to drop some of the load for a while and to not carry it around with me 24/7. It empowered me to become a survivor, not a perpetual victim in my own mind at least.

This is something I'm more than willing to take up both as a survivor and site administrator of TBBD and I thank you for alerting us to this possibility Daze.

God Save Us From Politicians.

Pat.

This really is bad news, but I must confess a smart part of me is glad that I'm not the only one affected by this (I know that sounds sellfish but read on). Whenever I am 'rejected' like I was by ACC last week, I can't help but take it personally, and I feel sorry for all the other ACC applicants that take it similarly. I couldn't help but think "Am I not worthy of extra help" ?

Whenever bad things happen in this world, from the powers that be, it usually comforts me to try and rationalise it. So I've been telling myself "Its not national's fault that they have a recession to deal with and need to cut costs".

But now I'm really not so sure. I'm not sure what we can do, but I get the feeling counsellors, therapists and survivors all over NZ are pissed.

Daze, since my rejection from ACC, I have been advised to apply to WINZ for a disability allowance for counselling. Its basically the same thing, so I'm in that process now. If you have been diagnosed as having depression by your GP, perhaps this is an option for you too?

JK.

Hi there

I had a meeting with some ACC head honchos on Tuesday (lunch) and amoungst other things, asked them about this.

They were saying that it is not that ACC are just cutting the funding. Someone, somewhere has identified in the legislation that the person must have suffered an income loss during the "accident" (or in this case abuse).

As and when children are abused they are not earning anything, and hense when they are older they don't qualify.

I know that this does not help people, but that is how I understand the standing ACC have taken,

That seems a 'crap' reason to me and not all relevant. To my knowledge children are covered by ACC if they have a physical accident, and they're not earning a wage.

Older people are covered if they fall in their homes (or anywhere else for that matter), and they're mostly not earning a wage.

Some of us have not been able to claim the 80% (?) of wages. Probably most of us can only claim counselling.

I certainly don't understand that reasoning for cutting services. Would they rather have more 'victims' committing suicide. The MH services can't cope with the workload now, so imagine what it would be like if all the people who have been/are now having counselling covered by ACC, end up on their doorstep. And the percentage of people requiring MH services who have been sexually (and otherwise) abused, as children, is high.

Daze

Hi Daze.. Hi Everyone.. :-)

My counsellor told me about this last week too.. this is how I understand the process will be.... there would be a three step process for someone wanting to apply for ACC counselling as a new claim - she said that the person would need to complete an ACC45 with an ACC registered counsellor or a GP to apply to ACC for the claim to be considered, ACC then send the person to a psycholgist at Mental Health for a three appointment assessment - that person then makes a recommendation to ACC who then decide whether to accept the claim or not - she said it's more than likely the case would be referred to Mental Health for any counselling ACC deems to be needed.

This would be incredibly daunting for anyone reaching out for help and beginning a counselling journey - it takes a heck of a lot to make that first call to make an appointment, let alone be moved from person to person.

I said to her that I felt the process like that would be abusive - to the extent it could have the result of people committing suicide, because they feel so bad - that there's no help, or eventually possible help after what I'd guess would be a several week process at minimum. There would certainly be significant affects on the person, any children they have, partner's, families, etc..etc.. the reduction of 'cost' (as judged by ACC) by having this new process would lead to huge effects and true costs on individuals and on society in general.

She doesn't know what the procedures will be for someone who is already receiving counselling, as I am, and will let me know once she knows.

As you said Daze, the National Association of Counsellors - and there's a NZASW (or similar) too, are banding together to make submissions to ACC to have this changed - she said the counsellors view as an association is that the process would be abusive to people who have need of support from sensitive claims, and that the process could (I'd think mostly would) lead to triggering and re-traumatising.

Lets hope they're successful - thank goodness the counsellor's are getting organised to take this up with ACC on behalf on anyone who has experienced sexual abuse.

The other thing she said was that earlier this year, Acc asked all ACC registered sensitive claims counsellor's, psychologists, etc, to advise them within one month what the training and skills were that they can offer to sensitive claims clients. The counsellors weren't told what the information was for - and my counsellor said that, partly because of the short timeframe, most counsellor's sent in info about the areas they prefer to work in, leaving out info about other qualifications. They now know it was to gather info to reduce ACC sensitive claim counselling - as ACC could then say, ok, we don't have anyone in that area offering you (a client) what you need, so you need to go to mental health. She said the counsellors association members are feeling they've been manipulated - it sure sounds pretty sneaky.

If anything is submitted from us all here, I would support it - and I guess we would all have the opportunity to make individual submissions also to ACC.


I just found this site.. http://www.sexualabuse.co.nz/child.htm - has quite a lot of info.. and there's telephone counselling available - at no cost - info is here: http://www.sexualabuse.co.nz/telephone.htm What an amazing service.. good for them..

I looked for info in the ACC website - this is current info http://www.acc.co.nz/search-results/index.htm?ssUserText=sensitive+claim+process - I couldn't find anything about the new process.

Take care.. and warm thoughts to you all.. :-)