SECCA is the only specialist therapeutic and education service for people with disability who need support with sexual assault, sexual abuse and relationship matters in Western Australia.
The services SECCA provides are critical because people with disability are at far greater risk (11x1 ) of sexual abuse and assault than people without disability. They are also over-represented in the justice system for sexuality and relationship-based offences. SECCA’s education, counselling and crisis intervention services address these challenges faced by people with disability, many of whom have very complex needs.
Below is a summary of recommendations for improvements to the NDIS based on SECCA’s clients, families and service providers, and on staff feedback that identified NDIS practices that hinder people with disability accessing the support services they need.
Summary of recommendations for the Joint Standing Committee:
SECCA has successfully transitioned to the NDIS. However, we do have some concerns about procedures within the NDIS that may compromise the privacy of PWD, and also the level of administration required under the NDIS that puts strain on SECCAs limited resources and reduces client contact and direct service provision.
It has also become apparent that the NDIS is not a suitable funding mechanism for certain circumstances such as urgent crisis support and protective behaviour education. Without alternative pathways for funding outside of individual NDIS plans, these important and effective programs are less likely to be available to people with a disability who need them.
We have made seven recommendations that would help to resolve these issues. We thank the Committee for considering our feedback and hope that changes will be made to reflect the needs of the sector so we can continue to deliver the most suitable and effective services to our clients.
Recommendation 1: Ensure people with disability have the same access to crisis counselling services as other Australians enjoy.
People with disability who have been sexually assaulted or abused need access to counselling in the same way as people without disability. People with disability are at significantly higher risk of sexual assault and abuse.
Mainstream services and private counsellors refer people with disability to SECCA as they lack specialist expertise in working with this unique demographic. The NDIS plan process slows and limits access to counselling.
Background:
1. NDIS plans are not an appropriate means of providing crisis intervention in cases of sexual assault or
abuse as these are a result of a crisis or historical abuse that is not identified until a client feels safe
to disclose it.
1 aifs.gov.au/publications/sexual-assault-and-adults-disability/prevalence-sexual-assault-adults-disabilities
- Under the NDIS, access to counselling is currently restricted or mandated. However, the number and frequency of sessions should be determined by the counsellor, to meet the needs of the client, as it is for people without disability. 3. SECCA requires secure and sustainable funding in order to provide services to people with disability in crisis or with complex needs. 4. People with disability who have been sexually assaulted or abused require access to counselling in a timely manner. SECCA’s current wait list is over 200 people due to our limited resources and funding. There is more demand than we can meet in the existing system. 5. Women with disability are at increased risk of family violence. They are twice as likely to have experienced physical or sexual abuse from a partner compared with women without disability and are at much greater risk of emotional abuse. Emotional abuse includes financial abuse; deprivation of basic needs such as food, shelter, sleep or assistive aids; and insults intended to cause shame or humiliation. Many do not feel safe to disclose if they are reliant on the perpetrator for their care and will not include safety and other services in their NDIS plans as a result.
Recommendation 2: Create long term, secure funding opportunities for the provision of crisis support services, protective behaviours and other preventative education services to ensure the rights of vulnerable people with disability are protected.
These services are vital and yet not recognised in, or suited to, individual NDIS plans. Protective Behaviours Education and Relationships and Sexuality Education needs to be prioritised as a human right for people with disability, given their much greater risk of sexual assault and abuse.
Background:
1. Protective Behaviours Education is a preventative approach that empowers people with disability,
parents, teachers and carers. Access to support and education is critical for people with disability
and their families, especially throughout puberty and emerging adulthood, when people with
disability and families o en face new challenges.
2. Protective Behaviours Education equips people with evidence-based knowledge and skills to
understand appropriate private/public behaviour, signs of safety and what to do if they feel unsafe.
3. People with disability are over-represented in the criminal justice system for sexuality and
relationship offences, o en because they lack the understanding of the issues and are not provided
with adequate Relationships and Sexuality Education and Protective Behaviours Education .
4. There is a huge personal, social and economic cost when Relationships and Sexuality Education is
not accessible to people with disability. For example, the annual cost of a person with disability in
prison in WA is estimated at $355,000 per annum2 .
Recommendation 3: Ensure people with disability have the same right to privacy as people without disability.
People with disability accessing services should have the same privacy and confidentiality protection under law and in the operation of the NDIS as people without disability.
Background:
1. People with disability are currently required to disclose the reasons they need support to NDIS
planners in order to access services following sexual assault or abuse. This creates a barrier to access
2 Department of Corrective Services, Annual Report 2016-2017, Table: Cost per day to keep a young person in detention, Actual 2016-2017, p. 89.
support, can put them at further risk of abuse (for example, if their abuser is a family member or their carer) and may breach their right to privacy. 2. Reports from NDIS clients’ counselling sessions at SECCA are required to be emailed to a generic email address at the NDIS and provided to planners. This is a legal and ethical issue for SECCA, which places clients’ privacy and SECCA’s responsibility to protect clients’ privacy at risk. SECCA’s legal duty of care cannot be met under this requirement as there is no clarification or safeguards about who views this information.
Recommendation 4: Identify systemic gaps not covered by the NDIS and clearly delineate both the State and Federal governments’ responsibilities to ensure these gaps are addressed.
Currently, the NDIS appears to be the fallback for all disability services, with significant gaps in services and supports.
A disability issue is not by default an NDIS one. For example: The following are not NDIS services: Crisis Intervention for victims of abuse with a disability, Protective Behaviours Education for people with disability, advocacy and education for people with disability who are involved with the justice system, and support and referral services for teachers and police who are working with people with disability with complex needs.
Background:
1. It is critical that people with disability who are referred by police, teachers, GPs, support workers
and psychologists for crisis counselling, advocacy and support at SECCA are able to access the
service, whether or not they have an NDIS plan or counselling is included in their plan. For example:
a. When a person who is non-verbal presents at hospital with suspected sexual assault,
hospital staff can (and do) call SECCA.
b. If a person with an intellectual disability is accused of committing sexual assault, police can
(and do) call SECCA.
c. If a child is acting inappropriately in a sexual manner at school, teachers can (and do) call
SECCA.
Recommendation 5. Reduce administration loads on service providers so more resources are directed to client services.
The reporting and administration required under the NDIS currently takes an excessive portion of specialist staff time. If reporting was simplified and streamlined, this would enable more clinical time for clients, or shorten the waiting list for our services. Alternatively, fees charged could be increased to cover the additional non-clinical time spent on administration under the NDIS.
Background:
1. Letters of recommendation and or reports are requested throughout a client's journey;
approximately two reports per person. This additional workload detracts from our face to face
service delivery.
Recommendation 6. Address the complex needs of vulnerable people with disability by allowing greater flexibility in their plans.
People with disability who have complex needs require substantial assistance to access the expert services needed to assess and provide support for their complex needs.
Background:
1. Many of SECCA’s clients are dealing with mental health issues, involvement with police and the
criminal justice system, insecure housing and homelessness, family violence and breakdown or lack
of family support, out of care issues and the child protection system, as well as their disability.
2. Many SECCA clients present with mental health issues, and an increasing number with suicidality.
The Covid-19 crisis has increased the stress experienced by people with disability.
3. In order to assess complex needs of clients with disability, NDIS planners require an understanding
and knowledge of mental health and its intersectionality with disability, family violence, trauma,
relationship, sexuality and other sensitive and challenging subjects.
4. Mainstream services are neither experienced nor adequately equipped to respond to people with
disability. Staff are not trained in working with people with disability. Access to counselling o en
depends on the values and attitudes of support staff and NDIS planners rather than the needs of
people with disability or the advice of family, carers and support staff.
5. The NDIS requires clients to commit to a set number of sessions even though this may not be
appropriate in practice. In some cases, clients may not need all the sessions allocated. In others,
clients use counselling as a ‘holding support system’ that they use infrequently but intermittently,
providing them with the security of being able to access support when needed, and allaying anxiety
of both clients and their family members.
6. To be eligible for counselling under the NDIS clients are required to commit to a goals-focused plan
that determines when and how they will achieve these goals. The nature of sexual abuse and
relationship issues is that these o en underlie presenting behavioural or emotional problems, and
may not be identified until counselling is underway. In the case of SECCA’s clients, it is therefore not
appropriate to predetermine counselling goals prior to the client engaging with the counsellor and
being assessed.
7. Best practice requires that new clients are individually assessed when referred for clinical
counselling or psychosocial education. The NDIS planning process does not allow for this. Without a
personalized assessment of new clients there are ethical issues relating to client autonomy. For
example, an individual may not know that they are coming for counselling, or they may not even
want counselling. A referral may have come about based on the values and attitudes of support staff
who think the client has been ‘naughty’ or ‘promiscuous’. The current requirements compromise the
therapeutic process, the client's own willingness to engage, and the NDIS values of choice and
control.
8. Many people who are eligible for the NDIS do not think to include psychosocial counselling and
education as part of their plan. SECCA has received a number of complaints from support staff
and/or family members who report that even though ‘therapy or counselling’ had been included in
plans, they were told to access services closer to their homes which, in most cases, overlooks the
specific needs of people with disability.
9. Clients are not given an opportunity to review their support plan sufficiently before it is signed off.
10. SECCA’s counselling service relies on family, community, school or work support and access to other
support services. Under the NDIS additional support and services are limited to what is on the
client’s plan. This can limit the effectiveness of counselling and the solutions a counsellor is able to
offer an individual.
11. SECCA frequently receives reports of abuse or inappropriate behaviour occurring in client’s homes.
With fixed accommodation funding in their plan there is less flexibility for short term
accommodation or other suitable accommodation changes to suit clients’ specific needs and
circumstances.
12. SECCA supports the need for Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) to be recognised as a
neurodevelopmental disability and the need for recognition of severe impairment in three or more
domains of functional impairment where confirmation of alcohol exposure cannot be confirmed. It is our understanding that the NDIA has identified FASD as an important category of disability for consideration within the NDIS.3
13. SECCA falls under the NDIS ‘Improved Relationships’ line item, which immediately frames the person
as the problem to be fixed or managed when very o en it is the circumstances in which they find
themselves (lack of support, living arrangements etc) that are the cause of the complex and
challenging behaviours.
Recommendation 7. Fund targeted programs that reduce interaction with the Criminal Justice System for vulnerable people with disability.
Providing funding for preventative education and crisis response to target groups can reduce the justice implications of inappropriate sexual behaviour among people with disability. Relying on people with disability to include these programs in their plan fails to adequately address the issue, which has wider community impacts and serious economic costs.
| People with disabilities account for | People with an intellectual disability | | 18% of the country’s population but | are almost 11 times more likely to be | | almost 50% of people entering prison.4 | victims of sexual assault.5 | | A child can be culpible for a sex offence | 89% of inmates @ Banksia Prison | | from age 10.6 | were found to have severe | | | cognitive/neurodevelopmental | | | impairment.7 |
- People with intellectual disability are over-represented in the criminal justice system. Many cases are connected sex-related offences, and individuals may not have the cognitive capacity to understand what they have done or lack the education to make appropriate, safer choices.
- The assessment and rehabilitation processes provided to people with intellectual disability and cognitive impairment in the justice system are limited, resulting in likely reoffending.
- One of the major reasons many people with disability become involved with the criminal justice system is a lack of support and education, particularly for those with intellectual disability. Providing support and education would address the root of the problem, with benefits including: a. Reduced rates of contact with the justice system, incarceration and recidivism b. Duty of care legal responsibilities addressed by training and upskilling staff in disability awareness c. Access to Protective Behaviours Education and Sexuality and Relationship counselling provided as part of rehabilitation programs d. A refined process for making disclosures of abuse more appropriate and effective for people with disability
3https://www.fasdhub.org.au/fasd-information/managing-fasd/NDIS/#:~:text=Currently%20the%20NDIS%20only%20recognises,and%20result%20in%20permanent%20impairment. &text=The%20NDIA%20has%20identified%20FASD,for%20consideration%20within%20the%20NDIS. 4 hrw.org/report/2018/02/06/i-needed-help-instead-i-was-punished/abuse-and-neglect-prisoners-disabilities 5https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/acssa_issues9.pdf https://aps.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00050069208257591 6 TBC 7 https://www.fasdhub.org.au/research-and-publications/research-projects/Banksia-Hill-Project/
e. Cross government/sector collaboration to address systemic injustice and ensure that the rights of vulnerable people with disability are upheld. Case Study
Toby’s Story
SECCA CASE STUDY
Toby is a 18-year-old man with Autism and an Intellectual Disability, suspected Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder (FASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Epilepsy.
His biological family has a history of domestic and sexual abuse, and as a result, he has been in and out of the child protection system since he was 5 years old.
Like many people with a traumatic history, Toby is known to the justice system primarily for absconding and stealing a bike. At 16 he was sentenced to juvenile detention for charges relating to ‘sexting’ inappropriate images on social media. He was then transferred to an adult prison when he turned 18. Although Toby maintains his “girlfriend” pressured him to take them he is now a registered sex offender.
A er his release Toby stayed with a distant relative but this arrangement was short-lived as his relative did not want him there and made him feel unwelcome. He survived by ‘couch surfing’ until new regulations around COVID-19 and social distancing have forced him to spend nights on the streets. Toby doesn’t understand COVID-19 and the new regulations.
Toby’s disability affects his impulse control and decision-making capability. He has no family support and as a result is vulnerable to victimisation, exploitation, negative peer pressure and being led to take part in antisocial conduct.
Toby is isolated and lonely so he will seek out company and a place to stay wherever he can find it. He does not understand the risks associated with this, particularly in the context of a pandemic. Without stable accommodation and supported funding, Toby is likely to ‘stay’ with anyone; risking both his personal safety and the reporting conditions of his parole. His level of stress has escalated to the point he is presenting at SECCA with suicidal ideation.
People like Toby are at very high risk of reoffending. However, with access to support and secure accommodation, they can share the same opportunities as other Australians to live as independently as possible. These are basic human rights for people with disabilities under the NDIS.