Sexual assault support centre can't take on new counselling clients

A centre that counsels victims of sexual assault says it can no longer accept new clients because of a lack of money.

Sexual Violence New Brunswick provides support services, including individual counselling, to sexual assault victims in the greater Fredericton area.

Lorraine Whalley, executive director of the centre, said there isn't enough funding to expand the centre's capacity to provide counselling.

The centre receives federal and provincial funding for some projects and gets a United Way grant of about $14,000 for counselling and a support line. 

Whalley said the grant is only enough to cover the costs for one counsellor to provide one day of counselling a week.

The centre supplements the grant with funding from fundraisers to bring in more counsellors, but says cobbling together funds to support the counselling service isn't sustainable. 

Whalley said two full-time therapists are needed, which would require an additional $125,000 to $150,000 a year.

"Certainly, we're very grateful for the funding that we get through the United Way," she said.

"They've been a long-term funding partner of ourselves and other community agencies, but we are advocating for other funding, for government funding that is core funding, that is sustainable funding, for individual counselling for sexual violence."

The centre, which currently sees 40 clients for individual counselling, said it's seen a dramatic increase in people who are looking for counselling, and the need isn't being met. 

Little change in reporting rate

Ten people are now on the waiting list for counselling. With each case being different and each victim having different needs, it's difficult to say when there will be openings, Whalley said. 

"What we're telling individuals who call us looking for counselling is that we're not taking the new referrals at this time, but that we are going to take their name and their contact information and as soon as we can open the intake process back up we will contact them."

Fredericton police spokesperson Alycia Bartlett said reporting of sexual assaults has remained stable the past few years, with 85 reported in 2017 and 84 reported in 2018.

Bartlett said it is hard to know the correlation between the reporting numbers and the requests for sexual assault support services.

"We can't link them directly," she said.

Bartlett said police encourage people to report and to seek help if they need it.

A call for provincial funding

Whalley said she knows that providing counselling to victims of sexual violence is a priority for the province, since a framework for action was announced two years ago that included counselling as an objective.

"What we're advocating for is that we have that conversation around the provision of funding, not just for ourselves but for other sexual violence services across the province to be able to provide that counselling support."

Whalley said the money the centre receives from the federal and provincial governments is project-based and doesn't fund support services such as counselling.

She said that as people talk more about sexual assault and sexual assault prevention, and as more people come forward, communities need to be ready to provide the supports victims need.

"We need to be able to provide the services that they need when they come forward."

A spokesperson from the province's Women's Equality Branch said in an email they would continue to work with the centre to find solutions.