Sexual abuse support groups say much more needs to be done to increase access for survivors to help under Medicare, although the Government says the psychological care needed by sexual abuse survivors is in place.
Counselling has been a welcome resource for Bob O’Toole.
It has been 60 years since he was sexually abused at Marist Brothers school in the Newcastle suburb of Hamilton, but even now it is never out of his mind.
“It does hang around … memories of difficult times will come back to you,” he said.
In recent years, Mr O’Toole finally started seeing a psychological counsellor — as he prepared for his appearance at the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
“Going to counselling just keeps me on a level playing field, to be able to deal with my own issues. And also, I guess, debrief a bit,” he said.
Mr O’Toole is getting the help he needs but the royal commission, in its recent hearings on a national redress scheme, said many other abuse survivors are not.
The commission estimates 65,000 people abused in institutional settings would be eligible for psychological care under a national redress scheme.
It estimates the combined cost of that care would be $358 million.
Groups like Adults Surviving Child Abuse (ASCA) said that does not include survivors of more than two-thirds of abuse believed to take place outside of institutions.
Up to 5,000 abuse survivors a year call ASCA’s professional support line.
“We know from many of those callers that they haven’t been able to access or afford counselling,” ACSA president Dr Cathy Kezelman said.
“And when they do, often that counselling isn’t from someone who’s appropriately trained.”
Counselling ‘a bit like taking antibiotics’
Abuse survivors seeking psychological counselling under Medicare have to be referred by a GP, and they are limited to 10 counselling sessions a year.
The Australian Psychological Society’s Louise Roufeil said measures like those limit access.
“The danger is in providing expectations of care, but then not being able to deliver a sufficient dose,” she said.
“It’s a bit like taking antibiotics. If you don’t take the whole course, it doesn’t work.”
In its submission to the royal commission on a redress scheme, the Federal Government said awareness of current services can be improved, but it said little about expanding access.
In a statement to the ABC, the Department of Health said: “The Commonwealth will consider any recommendations the Commission has when the final report is received.”
That report is not expected until June or July.
The Government’s reservations concern Simon Cole, an abuse survivor who has suffered with depression and now works as a solicitor representing other abuse survivors.
He has had regular counselling sessions for the last 18 years.
“I think without counselling my life would be very different at the moment,” he said.
“I’d probably be living on the margins, and struggling a lot more than I am at the moment.”