IN PART ONE of our Speak or Survive investigation, we spoke to survivors of sexual abuse about their experience of coming forward and what changes they want to see, as well as talking to agencies including Tusla, the HSE and groups who provide therapy and advocacy for victims of sexual crimes.
Since its establishment in 2000, the National Counselling Service has seen over 40,000 referrals to its service which provides free counselling and psychotherapy to adults who had experienced abuse in childhood. Alice believes that part of the health system’s response to her claims and the fallout from the trauma she endured has been to medicate and institutionalise her on various occasions, sometimes involuntarily and for a period of months, rather than provide her with appropriate therapeutic support.
She was put on risperidone, an antipsychotic drug. “When I screamed out, they’d say it was a feature of my mental illness. They didn’t seem to have experience of people suffering from trauma. I was told that it was for my safety but it felt like punishment. “He asked me if I was suicidal and, when I said I was not, he told me I would not be admitted because I was not a danger to myself. Then I was given a prescription for Clonazepam, a drug I hadn’t ever taken before. I said I wanted support, not drugs. He said this is not the place for me.
The abuse Stuart endured at school, combined with his Asperger’s Syndrome, made Stuart vulnerable. He spoke out publicly when the scale of child sexual abuse by children’s TV presenter Jimmy Savile – who had visited his school in the 1970s but was not Stuart’s abuser – began to emerge. Most of the therapy was group sessions and Stuart felt that it was never the right environment for him to explain what had really brought him there. “I was being treated for social anxiety without them having any understanding of what I was anxious about.”
In his medical records, a psychiatrist records that “Stuart has been contacted by Gardaí to provide a written statement re abuse he suffered…This has been very difficult and past trauma has resurfaced. Wife is supportive. Attends [a service provided by an autism charity] key worker and counsellor alternate weeks, feels it very useful.”
Research shows that up to 60% of victims never disclose their abuse, the HSE said, with male victims even less likely to disclose and, even then, often after some significant delay.