Royal Commission Counselling Pledge

By Catherine Armitage
The Age
April 13, 2013

http://www.theage.com.au/national/royal-commission-counselling-pledge-20130412-2hqzk.html

The federal government is to spend an unprecedented $44 million on counselling for people who relive traumatic childhood experiences for the royal commission into child sex abuse.

Organisations that can deliver counselling, support and case management services before, during and after interaction with the royal commission are invited to apply for funding, the government said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard established the royal commission to investigate how institutions entrusted with children had handled allegations and instances of child sexual abuse. The government is promising to do ''everything it can to help survivors of past abuse receive support and justice'', and to ensure such practices do not recur.

Trained counsellors have begun taking calls from abuse survivors, with 5000 or more predicted to come forward. Public hearings are expected to begin within six months.

Support groups have warned of the risk of further trauma to people recounting childhood abuse at the hands of authority figures in institutions such as churches, schools, orphanages and sporting organisations.

''Obviously when you have people who have waited sometimes decades to be heard that trauma is going to be raw and there are going to be lots of emotions flying around,'' said Cathy Kezelman, president of Adults Surviving Child Abuse, which has 5000 members and subscribers. ''They are going to be at risk. There need to be mechanisms in place for people to feel safe.''

This brings the known cost of the commission to $66 million before it has taken any formal evidence.

The lead commissioner, Justice Peter McClellan, warned at its first sitting that it ''will continue to require the commitment of very significant sums of public money''.