Trauma Assistance
This year, we increased the number of people we assisted through the Royal Commission Community Based
Support Service (RCCBSS), to a total of 322 clients. We were pleased to receive an extension of our funding
until June 2018, which will allow us to plan our service accordingly. As this is a free service that is providing
comprehensive therapeutic support for people directly and indirectly affected by the Royal Commission into
Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the on-going complexities of the work, clients are remaining
with the service.
In December 2015 the Inmate Engagement Strategy finished in NSW Correctional Centres, although support
for inmates continues until 30th June 2018 and due to the success of the NSW rollout, Interrelate was one of
the services contacted to provide support to a number of inmates within the Victoria rollout. We continue to
provide ongoing phone support to inmates at Dillwynia, Port Phillip (Victoria), Long Bay, Goulburn, Dawn De
Laos, Bathurst, Mannus, Tamworth and Junee Correctional Centres, while also providing face-to-face support
at Parklea and Lower Mid North Coast, and wing phones remain within the correctional centres providing a
direct access line to Interrelate and other services.
Networking for this service continues to occur through:
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Interrelate organising and facilitating RCCBSS NSW provider meetings
attending Royal Commission engagement forums, in particular, being actively involved in planning to
support survivors in the August Royal Commission Public Hearing into the Catholic and Anglican Diocese
of Newcastle
the team attending the Australian Childhood Foundation’s Trauma Conference in Melbourne, where they
attended presentations and master classes o n current knowledge and practice from international and
Australian experts in the field of Childhood Trauma and were able to connect with other services.
It is important to acknowledge and thank our practitioners who continue to work with RCCBSS clients as they
provide great commitment and passion in their work.
Client Story: Newcastle and Hunter
In May 2015, Dave rang our 1300 RCCBSS telephone counselling service. From the outset, it was
clear that Dave’s life had been thrown drastically off course as a result of sexual and physical
abuse he suffered at a boys’ home in the early 60s. As a young man Dave tried desperately to
not let the abuse define him. But, ultimately, nearly everything in his world would dissolve.
Relationships were difficult so he avoided them. Maintaining employment was difficult so he
lurched from job to job with long periods of unemployment. For decades the only constant in
Dave’s life was addiction and dependency. Then a couple of years back he was jolted by a major
health scare. At the beginning Dave was super ambivalent about counselling. He would say
things like “you can’t help me” or “I don’t need this”. He was also adamant that our CSOs were
not to call him to confirm appointments.
Our service simply respected Dave’s wishes and deliberately paced everything we did to where
he was. For the first dozen or so phone sessions the counsellor and Dave spoke about everything
and anything – so long as it didn’t include his past exposure to trauma. For example, the counsellor
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