Focus on the Victim Support

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 15, Issue 690, 10 June 1997, Page 12

Focus on the Victim Support

Once a year Victim Support holds a 'Focus Week', held to inform the public of the service that victim support provides. Victim Support came about as a result of the Victims of Offences Act. One of the main principles of the act states that victims should be told as soon as possible about services available and help they can obtain. Victim Support not only supports the victims of crime but also of accidents and sudden death. Victim Support volunteers are people who are trained to listen and answer, or find out the answer, to any questions victims may have about their treatment or the various procedures that have to be gone through by the Police or other emergency organisations and arrange contact with other support organisations if this is what the person requests. Victim Support in the Waimarino was set up in 1993, instigated by police sergeant Bob Evans. A steering committee was formed and in 1 994 the first group of volunteers attended an intensive course of training run over two weekends at Ruapehu College. This was followed by training in: Police procedures; Court procedures; the role of the funeral director and a very intensive interview process before the first six volunteer workers graduated. Since then seven more workers have been trained and over 600 people have received support. The Waimarino group currently has one worker awaiting training and five applications to go through Police clearance and the initial interview with the management • committee before being accepted for training.

Victim Support is funded by donations from people concerned about the rights of victims and at a National level by Telecom. The Waimarino Group have received funding from CFA, COGS, The Lotteries Commission, REAP, The Ohakune Hotel Trust, The Thomas George McCarthy Trust and the Police Diversion scheme. Telecom, Ruapehu Lions, The Ohakune Club and theCountry Women' s Institute have donated soft toys; Ruapehu Rotary, pagers; Winstone Pulp International, mileage vouchers. The Victim Support management committee of 12 people oversee the use of donated money, approve training, and appoint the co-ordinator. The money that comes into Victim Support is used to pay for support packs and training for volunteer workers, administration costs and the wages of a part-time co-ordinator who does most of the paperwork and processes the returns required by the Victim Support National Office and the figures required to apply to the various funding agencies. Help is short-term intervention rather than long-term counselling. Generally people are referred to the service by the Police but can be referred by other organisations or even request the service themselves. The Victim Support Co-ordinator works out of the Ohakune Police Station and can be contacted through either the Police phone or a pager number (advertised in the Guidelines of the Bulletin). Most of the people contacted to date have been victims of crime or accident and have been referred to the service by the Police but some have self-referred because they have felt that they have been unfairly treated by circumstances beyond their control and don't know where to turn or have felt victimised by being related to a person convicted of a crime. Whatever the reason a Victim Support worker is more than happy to talk through the concern that a person has and refer them on if they so require. All volunteers have sworn an oath of confidentiality and any support given is on that basis. As a small community many of the volunteers may be known personally. If someone is contacted by a volunteer they know and would feel happier talking to someone else then they should say so and another worker will be asked to take the case. In order to provide a high standard of service and as part of the requirement for CFA funding Victim Support is required to carry out a satisfaction survey of a percentage of its contacts. If a person is contacted as part of this survey it is the only other contact Victim Support will have with them, unless they require the service again, as once the survey is posted out all names addresses and identifying details are removed from the records. During Focus Week the Waimarino Group will be running a meat pack raffle in New World and a cake raffle. They also hope to have a display in Ohakune on Thursday 10 June and Raetihi on Friday 1 1 June to provide information about Victim Support and information about how to become a member of the organisation.