Referrals for Victims of Crime post 1 July 2020Written on the 27 August 2020 by SAFCA Letter from John Koerber, Chief Executive Officer, Victim Support Service You may be aware that Victim Support Service is no longer funded to deliver services to victims of crime and abuse in South Australia from 1 July 2020. This includes the provision of therapeutic counselling, as well as general information, support and advocacy for victims. Following this change, it's important to ensure that victims are referred to the appropriate services in the first instance. We are continuing to receive a high volume of referrals and direct contact from victims that we are no longer able to support, which ultimately results in delays and frustration for the individuals. We are therefore writing to our valued stakeholders, referral partners and agencies with a reminder that the referral points for victims of crime and abuse from 1 July 2020 are now: Victims of crime therapeutic counselling
For victims of crime counselling, direct to Relationships Australia South Australia (RASA): Victims of crime information, referrals, advocacy and general support For all other questions in relation to how victims of crime are supported in South Australia, including information, referrals, advocacy and general support, please direct to the Commissioner for Victims' Rights:
Phone: (08) 8204 9635 If you have information on your website, brochures, internal referral procedures or any other documents that refer victims of crime to VSS, these should now be updated with the new details above. Continuing services provided by Victim Support Service While we are no longer funded to provide general support for victims of crime, we also wanted to remind our valued partners that we continue to offer other programs. Our award-winning Staying Home Staying Safe program continues, which supports women and children who are victims of domestic or family violence to stay safely in their homes through the provision of safety packs, safety planning and security upgrades. There are no changes to services offered under this program and you can direct referrals to us via shss@victimsa.org We are also continuing to provide counselling and support for adult survivors of institutional child sexual abuse through our Redress Support Services program. There are also no changes to services offered under this program and you can direct referrals to us via RSS@victimsa.org For any other enquiries of an administrative nature, you can contact us via enquiries@victimsa.org. However, please do not use this address for requests relating to general victim support, which should be directed to the Commissioner for Victims' Rights as outlined above. Please note that previous email addresses for general victim of crime requests are no longer monitored, including info@victimsa.org and helpdesk@victimsa.org. We appreciate that this is a very significant change for many of you to update materials and ensure that appropriate referrals are made moving forward. Once again, we thank you for your support of Victim Support Service over the years.
Kind regards,
Author:SAFCA |
