The very helpful office of the Victorian Mental Health Complaints Commissioner suggested The Victorian Ombudsman is an avenue for us to make a complaint about the Victorian governments' lack of progress on a vital Royal Commission recommendation, so that's exactly what we're going to do. On behalf of you, our ~12,000 petitioners, and every adult survivor of institutional childhood sexual abuse in Victoria.
Our complaint will contrast the significant differences in the NSW Government's progress of the implementation of recommendation 9.1, to that of the Victorian Government. Namely, the Victorian government has invested to-date in the development of dedicated childhood sexual abuse services for adult survivors, that aren't integrated across the whole Victorian Health system.
Our complaint will also include the waste of time and money on the Victoria's Government's plan to create an integrated model from scratch. When there is the opportunity to learn from NSW Health's implementation of their framework since 2018, and pilot what's working in NSW, and what's been identified as improvement opportunities, through engagement of co-design and co-implementation with a Victorian community.
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Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 9.1 "The Australian Government and state and territory governments should fund dedicated community support services for victims and survivors in each jurisdiction, to provide an integrated model of advocacy and support and counselling to children and adults who experienced childhood sexual abuse in institutional contexts. Funding and related agreements should require and enable these services to:
a. be trauma‐informed and have an understanding of institutional child sexual abuse
b. be collaborative, available, accessible, acceptable and high quality
c. use case management and brokerage to coordinate and meet service needs
d. support and supervise peer‐led support models.
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2018: Victoria Funded dedicated services, not the integration of services.
The Victorian Government's Annual Report 2018, reporting progress on implementation of Royal Commission recommendations, noted "The Royal Commission supported the development of service models that include advocacy and case management, in addition to counselling. The Victorian Government boosted funding for Sexual Assault Support Services in response to an increased demand for services."
By comparison, the NSW Government's Annual Report 2018, "NSW will pilot a new integrated, specialist treatment service targeted for adult survivors with complex needs. This pilot aims to improve care through specialist sexual assault trauma counselling and integrated case management with mental health and drug and alcohol services."
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2019: Victoria funded dedicated services, not the integration of services.
"Victoria continues to deliver an integrated and evidence-based advocacy, support and therapeutic treatment service to meet the needs of victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, no matter the context of abuse. The Victorian Government funds 19 agencies across the state to provide trauma-informed, specialist sexual abuse counselling and advocacy."
By comparison, the NSW Government's Annual Report 2019, "Two local health districts are being selected to pilot a new integrated, specialist treatment service for adult survivors with complex needs. The pilot will commence in early 2020. Specialist research and service co-design expertise has been contracted to provide implementation and evaluation support to the two pilot sites. Following an independent evaluation to ensure the investment in new, enhanced and expanded service delivery is meeting its intended outcomes, the integrated service model is expected to be rolled out state-wide from 2022-23."
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2020: Victoria funded dedicated services, not the integration of services, and described identifying policy frameworks or strategies that require a trauma-informed approach, as ongoing.
"The Victorian Government funds 19 agencies across the state to provide sexual assault support services, as well as funding the Sexual Assault Crisis Line. The Royal Commission described the benefits of integrating a trauma-informed approach into all health and human services, not just specialist sexual assault services. The Royal Commission noted that if a service is trauma-informed, it will be safe, person-centred, and empowering for all service users, and will minimise the risk of re-traumatising victims and survivors. The Victorian Government is committed to adopting a trauma-informed approach in the delivery of its health and human services. Work to identify policy frameworks or strategies that require a trauma-informed approach is ongoing."
By comparison, the NSW Government's Annual Report 2020," NSW Health is implementing the Integrated Prevention and Response to Violence, Abuse and Neglect (IPARVAN) Framework, which is a key element of NSW Health’s Violence, Abuse and Neglect (VAN) Redesign Program. Implementation of the framework has commenced with a program of work over a six year timeframe (2019-2025), with a series of evaluations at different milestones, including an economic evaluation.
Implementation of Phase 1 of the IPARVAN Framework took place over 2019-20 and focused on integrating NSW Health’s VAN services. Planning for Phase 2 of implementation of the IPARVAN Framework has commenced and will focus on the integration between VAN services and the broader NSW Health system as well as interagency partners (while simultaneously continuing Phase 1). The planned approach for Phase 2 of the IPARVAN Framework is to build on, and learn from, initiatives already underway to integrate responses to violence, abuse and neglect across the Health system and with other government and non-government interagency partners."
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2021: Victoria continues to fund dedicated services, and to increase intake capability, not the integration of services. Does mention new brokerage funding over the next four years, but not the development of a new framework to enable this.
"All members of Sexual Assault Services Victoria funded to provide sexual assault support services must comply with the CASA Forum Standards of Practice (CASA Standards of Practice).The CASA Standards of Practice guide sexual assault practitioners to respond effectively and appropriately to the needs of victim survivors of sexual assault, including victim survivors of child sexual abuse.
A total of $49 million over four years was committed to support all victim survivors of family violence and sexual assault in the 2021-22 Victorian State Budget. This includes funding for sexual assault support services to:
• increase intake capacity and respond to the rise in demand for sexual assault services, and
• provide new brokerage funding to support victim survivor recovery, including victim survivors of institutional child sexual abuse."
By comparison, the NSW Government's Evaluation of the implementation of the IPARVAN Framework,"$67.1 million for NSW Health from 2018/19 to 2022-23 (and $19 million per annum thereafter) to implement recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The IPARVAN Framework is a key part of the VAN Redesign Program. It provides the overarching vision and strategies to strengthen responses to violence, abuse and neglect across the NSW Health system and other service systems. The Framework promotes a public health approach to preventing and responding to violence, abuse and neglect. Integral to this is an integrated service delivery at the system, service, practice, and workforce levels.
Overall, there was good progress on the implementation of the IPARVAN Framework across all objectives by the Ministry, pillar organisations and LHDs/SCHN. More progress was made under objective 1 (strengthening leadership, governance and accountability) and objective 2 (enhance the skills, capabilities and confidence of the NSW Health workforce) than under objective 3 (expand VAN Services to ensure they are coordinated, integrated and comprehensive) and objective 4 (extend the foundations for integration across the whole NSW Health system)."