My Journey to Loving Myself Following Sexual Abuse
Historically any article with “self-love” in it has given rise to a feeling of anger in me. Every cell in my body has been rotting in self-hate and loathing for a long, long time now. Any self-love talk made me angry and tempted to vent my resentment and jealousy in phrases such as ‘what sort of a deluded twit writes these articles?” They always seemed to have a skipping-piggy-tailed-Martha Stewart-apron wearing-sunshine-and-long-green-grass-non-harmful-bumble-bee feel to them and they make me angry and cynical!
Published in Psych Central
Publication: Peer Work in Rural and Remote Communities and Mental Health Services (PDF)
Peer Workers are the most underutilised, valuable resource available to rural and remote mental health services and communities. Evidence has confirmed the efficacy of peer work, yet their historically slow uptake has robbed communities and individuals of the opportunity to be supported by staff who can provide an added layer of assistance as part of a multidisciplinary team or beneficial alter- native to conventional treatments…
Authors: Fay Jackson, Tim Heffernan, Mark Orr, Robert Butch Young, Cherie Puckett, and Susan Daly
Australian police dismantle paedophile ring as 40 charged and 16 children removed from harm
Australian Federal Police (AFP) have charged 44 men and removed 16 children from harm after investigators dismantled a national paedophile ring.
The alleged perpetrators – some of who stand accused of producing their own child abuse material – are now facing a combined 350 charges after a law enforcement referral sparked a nationwide criminal investigation into child exploitation material.
Commissioner at AFP, Reece Kershaw said the year-long Operation Molto had netted offenders in every Australian state, plus the ACT.
Published in Stuff
Defending state abuse: Follow the money
The cost to the Crown of fighting claims by victims of abuse in state care is finally revealed before a Royal Commission. Aaron Smale calculates where most of the money went
Published in Newsroom
Abuse, torture and a deep state campaign of denial
It is well established that children were physically and sexually abused in state care in New Zealand over many decades.
But what has always been carefully hidden is the subsequent role of the Crown in deliberately, actively suppressing and stifling the bids for justice by survivors of those crimes.
Today, Aaron Smale reveals the lengths to which the Crown went – via its bureaucratic, legal and political arms – to avoid the blame and liability for crimes committed against minors in its care. The armoury of the state was deployed to stop the public from knowing the extent of this decades-long scandal, causing further trauma and harm to victims in the process.
Published in Newsroom
Uni promises ‘rigorous’ inquiries into abuse allegation levelled at famed composer
Senior leaders at Victoria University of Wellington will gather to consider the “serious” allegations of sexual assault and grooming raised by former students against Kiwi composer, the late Jack Body.
Body died in 2015, a week after being awarded Arts Icon status – one of the highest honours in the New Zealand arts world, held by only 20 living people at any one time.
Published in Stuff
Stunning claim cardinal ‘paid’ witnesses to convict George Pell using Vatican funds
A senior Italian cardinal has been accused of siphoning A$1.14m of Vatican funds to pay witnesses in George Pell’s sex abuse trial to secure a conviction against his bitter rival.
Italian media are reporting the allegedly corrupt Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu is suspected of wiring the cash to people testifying in Cardinal Pell’s trial to ensure their hostile testimony.
This allegedly occurred during the 2019 trial of Cardinal Pell who was accused of molesting choir boys in Melbourne in the 1990s, convicted, sentenced, imprisoned and later cleared.
Published in NZ Herald
Stan Walker opens up about physical, sexual abuse growing up – ‘It stuffed me up for years’
Since bursting into the public spotlight as a round-faced 18-year-old on Australian Idol, Stan Walker’s rags to riches story has captivated us. But his ‘back story’ of physical and sexual abuse has always been confined to two lines, brushed over, he’s forgiven and moved on.
But no more. Stan has more to say, a lot more.
Published in TVNZ
Research article: Developing a Model of Change Mechanisms within Intentional Unidirectional Peer Support (IUPS)
Peers are those with lived experiences of adversity and are commonly utilised in services. However, little is known about change mecha- nisms, resulting in undefined concepts and weak assertions on peer supports’ effectiveness. Further, peer interventions are becoming increasingly common in homelessness services, without the theoretical understanding to support it. This review systematically explores literature to close this gap. Iterative searches from PsychINFO, PsychARTICLES, PubMED, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Web of Science, and grey literature resulted in 71 included sources. Through realist synthesis, a model of client and peer pathways through peer support was developed. Through inclusion of literature from multiple health contexts (i.e. homelessness, mental health, addiction, and criminal justice), the review identified mechanisms of working alliances, role modelling, experience-based social support, and processes of becoming a peer-supporter. The model asserts that 1) the working alliance quality influences client/peer outcomes, 2) clients learn behaviours modelled by peers, 3) peer outcomes are mediated by being a role model, 4) peers provide social support, impacting client/peer outcomes, and 5) training, supervision, and support are directly linked to peer- supporters’ effectiveness.
By Stephanie L. Barker, Felicity L. Bishop, Elizabeth Bodley Scott, Lusia L. Stopa and Nick J. Maguire
School of Psychology, University of Southampton, United Kingdom.
Dilworth School: Former student claims he was caned after reporting sex abuse
Two former Dilworth students have spoken out about their grief and anger over sexual abuse at the school and say the police investigation has come too late.
Seven men with links to the Anglican boys’ boarding school in Auckland have been arrested for historical offending that includes sexual violation and indecent assault.
The inquiry spans four decades going back to the 1970s.
The two former students were at Dilworth during the 1970s – RNZ has agreed not to name them.
Published in Radio NZ
Research article: Study suggests peer support recovery framework may be relevant for people who are facing the uncertainties presented by Covid-19
The emergence of Covid-19 disrupted most aspects of life, creating a high degree of uncertainty and unpredictability about the future. Knowledge from a place of lived experience offers insights and strategies to better understand how to live, grow and thrive through the difficulties that people who experience mental health challenges, other disabling health conditions, people of color, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds have overcome. We report on a programmatic effort to investigate how lessons learned through lived experience could be useful to persons who are dealing with a destabilizing situation like this pandemic for the first time, especially mental health providers. Three listening sessions over Zoom were conducted to gather information, views and personal accounts related to the current pandemic. Twenty four people with experience of mental health challenges and people living with disabilities, of various ethnic and racial backgrounds, participated in the sessions. We suggest that the recovery framework can be helpful to address the current crisis; we challenge traditional notions of normality; and finally, we recommend that providers and systems of care adopt a framework that addresses health inequities and human rights.
Primary author: Ana Carolina Florence
June 2020
Dilworth case ‘unusual’ – Victims advocate
An advocate for victims of abuse in religious institutions says the Dilworth school case is unusual because the accused have ended up in court.
Six men in their 60s and 70s with historical links to the Anglican boys’ school in Auckland have been charged with indecent assault, sexual violation and drug supply.
Police have been investigating the Dilworth claims for a year and have so far identified 17 victims of abuse spanning from the 1970s to the early 2000s.
Liz Tonks, from the Network for Survivors of Abuse in Faith-based Institutions, says it’s unusual to see charges laid in these cases.
At a media conference yesterday the Dilworth Trust Board chair Aaron Snodgrass apologised publicly to any former students who had been abused.
By Morning Report
Published in Radio NZ
15 Sept 2020
In their words: Survivors share their experiences with the Abuse in Care Royal Commission
Last week, the Abuse in Care Royal Commission held its 500th private session with a survivor of abuse and/or neglect in the care of the State or a faith-based institution.
Many of those who shared their story chose to write a few words about the experience, some with a handwritten scrawl on a piece of paper, others through poems or mini-essays.
Published in Stuff
Six men in 60s, 70s arrested over alleged indecent assaults at Auckland’s Dilworth School
Police have arrested six men in their 60s and 70s as part of an investigation into historical offending at Dilworth School in Auckland.
The men have been charged on a number of serious offences, including indecent assault, which allegedly occured across a number of decades from the 1970s to early 2000s.
Detective Senior Sergeant Geoff Baber said the investigation was launched after a complaint was made a year ago.
Published in NZ Police Facebook and Newshub websites
Alleged historical sex offending casts ‘dark shadow’ over Auckland’s Dilworth School
School leaders have apologised to former students after six men were arrested on charges of historical sex offending at Dilworth School in Auckland.
During a press conference on Monday afternoon, Dilworth Trust Board chairman Aaron Snodgrass said the school was “truly sorry” for what had allegedly occurred.
Seventeen victims have been identified so far, police said.
Auckland news: in case you missed it
Published in Stuff
Research article: Recovery processes within peer provision: testing the CHIME model using a mixed methods design
Previous studies have pointed the need for more research, which explores how peer provision brings about change associated with recovery. This study aims to test Leamy’s framework, which consists of five recovery processes: connectedness, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment (also known as the CHIME framework) within the peer provision context.
By Grace Zeng, Donna Chung
The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice
04 Sept 2020
Charities Services declines calls to reinvestigate Gloriavale
Alleged abuse, forced separation of families, poor healthcare, unsafe working conditions for young children. A culture of domination and control.
Yet the Charities Services says these allegations from dozens of former Glorivale members are not “oppressive” enough for it to investigate.
Stuff earlier revealed the Gloriavale Leavers Support Trust met with Charities Services last December and presented a letter signed by 35 recent Gloriavale leavers asking the agency to open another investigation.
Published in Stuff
Victorian government to review laws stopping sexual assault survivors sharing their story
The Victorian government has announced a review of laws preventing sexual assault survivors from speaking publicly about their experience, hours after a campaign to have them repealed was launched.
Changes to the state’s Judicial Proceedings Reports Act introduced in February made it an offence for sexual assault survivors to publish their stories under their real identities in cases where proceedings were pending or a conviction had been recorded, unless they obtained a court order.
Published in SBS
Gloriavale’s sexual assault policy asks victims to ‘forgive’ abusers, gives offenders three chances to stop
Sexual assault victims at the secretive religious Gloriavale sect are made to meet with their abuser and forgive them – without police being notified.
Gloriavale leaders then give offenders “second and third chances” to stop offending, along with more rounds of forgiveness and repentance meetings when they fail to stop, before leaders will consider kicking them out of the community.
Any offender expelled for sexual offending is told to contact police themselves. Gloriavale leaders would make a complaint to police if they did not.
This is the policy the Gloriavale Christian Community, a registered charity, proposed for dealing with sexual assault complaints, sent to its government watchdog Charities Services in January for “feedback”.
Published in Stuff
‘Absolutely broken’: sexual violence advocate Louise Nicholas dumped by Government
Louise Nicholas taught Kiwis how to speak about sexual violence. Now, she believes the Government wants to silence her. Jehan Casinader reports.
Published in Stuff
Research article: The Polite Abuser: Using Politeness Theory To Examine Emotional Abuse
Over the last few decades more and more cultural attention has been paid to intimate partner violence, especially emotional abuse. Follingstad, Rutledge, Berg, Hause, and Polek (1990) established that emotional abuse fell into six distinct categories; however, little attention had been paid to how abusers can utilize polite communication to hurt their partner. Equally, Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987) had never been applied to problematic communication until Austin’s (1990) face attack acts model. This study aimed to understand how polite communication can be used as a form of emotional abuse.
By Cimmiaron Alvarez
March 2020
Mental Health Peer Specialists and Their Vision for a Civil Rights Movement
Many who have mental illness disabilities suffer from isolation and are disconnected from others. They can experience social anxiety, feel nervous, and be unable to connect or make friends. Some have agoraphobia, where they are unable to leave their home. Past traumatic experiences such as domestic violence or sexual abuse also can cause one to not trust others. Living in an isolated area with little mental health resources can also prevent one from finding trustworthy people. With isolation, there is a lack of social support, and opportunities for allyship with others are scarce. Some may not even have support from their families.
By Neesa Sunar
3 August 2020
Royal Commission launches separate probe into Marylands abuse
Abuse of children at Marylands School in Christchurch from the 1950s to the 1980s will be the subject of a special Royal Commission investigation.
The Royal Commission looking into the abuse of children in state and religious institutions has announced it will inquire separately into events at Marylands.
Marylands was a residential school for boys, many with learning disabilities, run by Catholic brothers of the St John of God order.
The commission is asking for victims, families, staff, witnesses or anyone else with knowledge of abuse at the school to call them confidentially on 0800 222 727.
Published in Stuff
Social Sector Commissioning, Progress, Principles and Next Steps
The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has recently released a document on Social Sector Commissioning – Progress, Principles and Next Steps. It does just that – covering commissioning in its broadest sense – “planning, engagement, funding, procurement, monitoring and evaluation that need to be undertaken though third-party providers to ensure people whānau and communities who need support get the support they need.”
‘Breach of trust’: landmark study delves into sexual misconduct complaints made against Australia’s health professions
Medical practitioners, psychologists, chiropractors and osteopaths comprise 22% of registered health practitioners in Australia, yet almost three-quarters of sexual misconduct complaints made to health regulators involved these professions, a world-first study has found.
Published in The Guardian
Assault and care characteristics of victims of sexual violence in eleven Médecins Sans Frontières programs in Africa. What about men and boys?
Often neglected, male-directed sexual violence (SV) has recently gained recognition as a significant issue. However, documentation of male SV patients, assaults and characteristics of presentation for care remains poor. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) systematically documented these in all victims admitted to eleven SV clinics in seven African countries between 2011 and 2017, providing a unique opportunity to describe SV patterns in male cases compared to females, according to age categories and contexts, thereby improving their access to SV care.
‘Our mahi carries on’
A commitment from government to include groups who work with victims and perpetrators of family violence in any plan to end family violence was the aim of a march to Parliament.
Tauawhi Men’s Centre co-ordinator Tim Marshall, SafeMan SafeFamily (SMSF) founder Vic Tamati and Male Survivors Aotearoa (MSA) national advocate Ken Clearwater led a hikoi on to parliament grounds on Thursday to ask the Government to commit to creating a cross-party strategy to end family violence.
Published in Gisborn Herald
Male survivors of sexual abuse trekking to Parliament on horseback
Male survivors of sexual abuse are trekking from North Canterbury to Parliament on horseback to send a message to politicians about the need for better protection for children.
Ken Clearwater, the national advocate for peer support group Male Survivors Aotearoa, was one of nine riders to start the nine-day journey to Wellington on Monday.
On arrival at Parliament on August 6, they plan to ask as many politicians as they can to commit to giving a voice to victims.
Published in Stuff
Sydney man charged over sexual exploitation of New Zealand girl
Warning: Some details of the alleged offending may be confronting.
A 23-year-old Sydney man has been charged by federal police in Australia with sexually exploiting a young New Zealand girl he groomed through social media.
Published in Radio NZ
Results from second Aotearoa New Zealand gender attitudes survey
The National Council of Women of New Zealand has published results from the second survey of gender attitudes in Aotearoa New Zealand.
From New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse website
14 July 2020
Signs You Might Be Suffering from Complex PTSD
The purpose of language is to help us to get a better grip on reality; the more words there are in our vocabulary, the higher the chance we have of being able to describe what we want, what ails us, what is driving us mad – and then in turn, to summon the help we may badly need.
Published in The School of Life
Prisoner sex attack part of bigger issue
Critics of double-bunking in prisons say a sex attack at Otago Corrections Facility is symptomatic of a much larger problem.
Published in Otago Daily Times
Historic child sex abuse in Fiji’s Catholic schools uncovered
1 NEWS has been investigating claims made against the Catholic church in Fiji for the last year. Source: 1 NEWS
By Barbara Dreaver
Published in TVNZ
12 July 2020
Former Scout leader James Morris sexually abused children for 40 years
The former Scout leader James Morris has caused untold damage to the children he sexually abused over a period of 40 years.
Morris, also known as Ian Charles Phipps, is now waiting to receive his fourth jail sentence and this time it could be forever.
Stuff can now reveal that Morris has a string of convictions for child sexual abuse and was sentenced to preventive detention in 1997.
Published in Stuff
‘Why didn’t he help those little boys?’: how George Pell failed the children of Ballarat
The cardinal maintains he didn’t know about the Victorian town’s notorious paedophile priests, a claim the royal commission found ‘implausible’.
Published in The Guardian
Sex abuse allegations against Catholic clergy quadrupled in 2019
The number of sex abuse allegations against Catholic clergy members more than quadrupled in 2019 compared to the previous five years, U.S. church officials reported in an annual audit (PDF) released this week.
Published in The Hill
Peer Support in Mental Health: Literature Review
Background: A growing gap has emerged between people with mental illness and health care professionals, which in recent years has been successfully closed through the adoption of peer support services (PSSs). Peer support in mental health has been variously defined in the literature and is simply known as the help and support that people with lived experience of mental illness or a learning disability can give to one another. Although PSSs date back to several centuries, it is only in the last few decades that these services have formally evolved, grown, and become an integral part of the health care system. Debates around peer support in mental health have been raised frequently in the literature. Although many authors have emphasized the utmost importance of incorporating peer support into the health care system to instill hope; to improve engagement, quality of life, self-confidence, and integrity; and to reduce the burden on the health care system, other studies suggest that there are neutral effects from integrating PSSs into health care systems, with a probable waste of resources.
By Reham A Hameed Shalaby*, MD; Vincent I O Agyapong*, MD, PhD
May 2020
Reporting of Sexual Assault and Abuse of Males in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community
A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts in Criminal Justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.
By Yevgeniy Pastukhov Semchenkov
May 2020
The lasting toxic effects of former Catholic Marist brother Kevin Healy
A Catholic Marist Brother told a girl he sexually assaulted to push rotten tomatoes into her face because she was so “ugly”.
The victim no longer lives in New Zealand, but the toxic memories of Kevin Healy’s offending are a constant reminder of betrayal, fear and anger.
The 81 year old, previously known as ”Brother Gordon”, was sentenced to nine months of home detention when he appeared in the Napier District Court on June 5, after pleading guilty to four charges of indecency between a man and boys aged 12 and 13, and one of indecency with a girl aged under 12.
The offending occurred between 1976 and 1977 when Healy was a member of the Marist Brothers and an active school teacher in Wairarapa.
Published in Stuff
Intentional Peer Support Newsletter June 2020
IPS Statement of Support
Intentional Peer Support stands with all marginalized peoples, especially those of color experiencing harm at the hands of police and those with system and institutional power. We stand shoulder to shoulder with fellow organizations who condemn and are outspoken in their fight against white supremacy in the U.S. and throughout the world. This disregard of basic human rights is ubiquitous, malicious, and must be challenged at every turn. The death of George Floyd – at the hands of police – is yet another graphic reminder of the systemic racism and violence that is increasingly pervasive and incompatible with basic human rights and the values we uphold.
Published in Intentional Peer Support
Royal Commission Seeks Information From Faith-based Abuse Survivors On Their Claims For Redress
The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry is appealing for information from survivors who reported the abuse they suffered while in faith-based care and sought redress either directly from the Church or other Faith-based Institution or by filing civil proceedings in Court or the Human Rights Review Tribunal.
Published in Scoop
This teen became homeless during the pandemic: it’s led to his freedom
New South Wales has one of the largest incidences of youth homelessness in Australia, and one of the leading causes is domestic and family violence. For Alex* home life reached a point of no return during the pandemic. But knocking on the door of youth homelessness services has led to finding a place where he can be himself — without needing to wear a mask.
Published in SBS News
Male sexual assault survivors in Christchurch working with rescued horses to heal their trauma
Male survivors of sexual trauma have been working with rescued horses to help them develop trust and to manage post-traumatic stress.
Ken Clearwater of Male Survivors Aotearoa introduced the concept to the group. Many of the men have never been around horses.
Published in TVNZ
A role for lived experience mental health leadership in the age of Covid-19
In 2020 an invisible assassin has swept across the world, creating chaos, confusion and uncertainty. Covid 19 has taken many people’s health, some people’s lives and the lives of loved ones. It has destroyed livelihoods and put the financial futures of billions at risk. We are helpless, there is nothing to fight back with. We are trapped, we have to stay in our homes. We are physically isolated, our usual freedoms and way of life suspended…
By Louise Byrne & Til Wykes
23 May 2020
Coming back from the brink
Isolated, lacking support and not able to see his children Ryan* didn’t know where to turn.
Suicidal thoughts had started to creep in with isolation compounding the issue.
Family members encouraged him to reach out for help and gave him the number of a free counselling service provided by Male Support Services Waikato during lockdown.
Published in Sun Live
Ninety-four percent of sexual assaults go unreported – survey
One in four people experience sexual assault in their lifetime, but 94 percent of those assaults are not reported to the police, the largest survey of crime in New Zealand shows.
Published in Radio NZ
‘You grow up hating yourself’: why child abuse survivors keep – and break – their silence
Earlier this year Erin Delaney revealed on Facebook a secret she’d kept from almost everyone.
As a child she suffered physical and emotional abuse and severe neglect. The neglect had significant consequences, including a fractured skull from falling – which was only picked up when, after she vomited at school the next day, a member of her extended family intervened and took her to hospital.
Published in The Guardian
Catholic Church’s legal deluge compounded by damning Pell findings
The Catholic Church is facing hundreds of civil claims by victims of clerical sex abuse, bolstered by the royal commission’s findings about Cardinal George Pell’s role in the “catastrophic failure of leadership” in the Ballarat diocese.
The royal commission’s finding that Cardinal Pell knew nearly 40 years ago of the church’s practice of shifting notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale to different parishes to avoid scandal is likely to bolster the cases of abuse survivors who must demonstrate a breach of duty of care to successfully sue the church.
Published in Sydney Morning Herald
Damning evidence against Cardinal George Pell | 60 Minutes Australia (Video)
In 2015, 60 Minutes presented damning new evidence against Pell. He has always argued his intervention on behalf of child abuse victims was innovative, independent and compassionate. But now, secret documents reveal it as a cynical smokescreen designed to protect the Catholic Church at all costs.
By 60 Minutes
25 Feb 2020
The hidden findings on George Pell are now clear: he could have protected children from abuse. He didn’t
This is the portrait of a deceitful man. We have waited over two and a half years but now we can read the unflinching verdict reached by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Cardinal George Pell.
With its last findings made public, it’s clear that no senior figure in any church who gave evidence to the commission has emerged as damaged as Pell.
Published in The Guardian