By BEN CAMERON
An expanding population and rising rates of sexual assault and family violence in the Cardinia Shire has spared an important support service in Pakenham from the axe.
Staff at Monash Health’s South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault (SECASA) Pakenham office will be bolstered after a solitary part time worker assisted 116 new clients over a six month period last financial year.
SECASA Manager Carolyn Worth said she was forced to close two offices in Doveton and Cranbourne, last week, to “tidy up the service” with rising staffing, rental and general ongoing costs.
“We really are struggling at the moment,” she said.
“Cardinia Shire is clearly an important consideration because it is such a growth area.
“I had tried to come in on budget by cutting the number of locations because at each location we obviously pay rent.
“Pakenham was one of the offices on the chopping block.
“We agreed not to close Pakenham after representations about the increase in population and the importance of local services in an area growing so quickly.
“We have agreed to put two workers in part-time to address the need and demand.”
This will start in October.
The Cranbourne and Doveton offices will remain closed as “they have not demonstrated the same increased demand.”
She said the combination of the royal commission and parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse had increased its overall workload by approximately ten per cent.
“What actually happens in reality is that it increases waiting times and you never know who drops out because of the wait,” she said.
A majority of SECASA’s funding over the 2013/14 financial year, $3m, came from the Department of Human Services.
“We are currently under resourced as we try and cover an area which comprises a quarter of the state’s population,” she said.
“(We could use) another $500,000 which would purchase four staff and pay some rental would probably sort the worst of our waiting times out.
“Twenty-four hour services are difficult to run.
“I think we have got busier in the past two to three years as the Victorian parliamentary inquiry and the royal commission have heightened everyone’s awareness of sexual assault and increased referrals not always directly related to the inquiry or royal commission.”
A Pakenham counsellor said in SECASA’s annual report – a background in mental health, grief, alcohol and drug counselling – that 90 per cent of her drug and alcohol clients used substances to conceal pain-and-loss resulting from sexual abuse.
SECASA, which offers 24 hour services to children and adults, helped 2318 new clients last financial year, including 792 children, 1319 adult females and 170 adult males.
