MSD: Sexual Harm Service Development Update

November 03, 2017 at 10:23 AM


2 November 2017

Sexual Harm Service Development Update

Welcome

In this update you'll find information about:

New Minister of Social Development
Other Ministerial appointments
Sexual Harm Crisis Support Services
Harmful Sexual Behaviour Services
National Sexual Harm Helpline
Evaluation of sexual harm services
Upcoming male survivors conference

New Minister of Social Development

Carmel Sepuloni

The new Minister of Social Development is Carmel Sepuloni.

She was previously the spokesperson for Social Development, Associate Education, Children and Pacific Island Affairs. She represents the Auckland seat of Kelston.

Carmel has worked broadly across the education and health sectors including as Chief Executive of Vaka Tautua – a charitable organisation that aims to help improve the health and wellbeing of Pacific people in New Zealand.

She has also been appointed the Minister for Disability Issues and Associate Minister for Pacific Peoples.

The Ministry is now focused on providing information to the new Government on our work programme.

Other Ministerial appointments

Other appointments of interest to the sector include:

Associate Social Development Minister Peeni Henare. He is also the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Minister for Whānau Ora, and Youth
Minister of Justice, Minister for Courts Andrew Little.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Justice (Domestic and Sexual Violence Issues) Jan Logie
Minister of Corrections Kelvin Davis
Minister for Children, Minister for Seniors, Tracey Martin

Sexual Harm Crisis Support Services

Outcome of Gaps Tender

We are now entering the final stages in the tender process to fill geographical gaps in the availability of crisis support services for people who have been affected by sexual harm.

Through the tender process, providers were sought to apply for service delivery in specific areas that the Ministry identified as gaps across the Auckland, Midlands, Central and Southern regions.

Auckland: Discussions are continuing with four shortlisted providers.

Midlands, Central and Southern: Contract negotiations are currently underway with successful providers in areas where there has previously been limited or no sexual harm crisis support service available.

Midlands and Southern: A further engagement process will be undertaken for areas where contracts were not awarded. We’re hoping to work regionally to identify organisations we can work with to build capability and capacity to deliver the required service as this current tender was unable to fill gaps in all areas. Further details on this engagement will be available shortly.

Additionally, three-year contracts have now been finalised with the existing 33 sexual violence service providers to deliver sexual harm crisis support services.

Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB) Services

Kaupapa Māori HSB Service Pilot

Kaupapa Māori service Korowai Tumanako has been awarded the contract to pilot the provision of harmful sexual behaviour services (HSB) for non-mandated adults within a kaupapa Māori framework.

An open competitive tender process was run to find a provider to work holistically with Māori adults who have engaged in HSB and their whānau support networks to help prevent sexual harm, increase safety, and restore and enhance the mana of whānau and communities.

The pilot will be conducted in Te Atatu, Auckland, over 20 months from November 2017 to 30 June 2019 and it will be evaluated by the Sapere Research Group, partnering with an independent kaupapa Māori researcher and evaluator.

The pilot and its evaluation will contribute to the evidence base in relation to whānau-violence prevention and intervention programmes, and to the development of an integrated service model.

National Sexual Harm Helpline

Progress is being made on building the new 'Safe to Talk' national sexual harm helpline with content now being developed for the website.

Following the nationwide roadshow, Homecare Medical has extended an open invitation to providers to visit their Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch centres to understand how the organisation approaches its role in a number of sectors.

If you have any questions or you are interested in meeting with staff or visiting Homecare, please contact:

Sharryn Gannon, sharryn.gannon@homecaremedical.co.nz, Clinical Director
Anne Bateman, anne.bateman@homecaremedical.co.nz, Head of Mental Health Services.
Paul Lambert, paul.lambert@homecaremedical.co.nz, Programme Director for this project.

More information on the helpline, including the roadshow presentations and answers to questions asked at the sessions, is available on the MSD website.

Evaluation of sexual harm services

Researchers from Malatest International will make contact with some providers in the next few weeks to seek feedback on their initial ideas on how specialist sexual harm services funded by the Ministry can be evaluated.

As reported in the last Update, Malatest has been contracted by the Ministry to develop evaluation plans for crisis support services, the national sexual harm helpline, harmful sexual behaviour services and service for male survivors of abuse.

The Malatest evaluators would like to introduce themselves:

Debbie McLeod - Director. Kia ora, I am the manager of this project. I have over 30 years of research and evaluation experience in both the public and private sectors. I have developed evaluation plans for complex service delivery programmes such as the youth primary mental health services, the pregnancy and parenting service pilots for whānau with addiction issues, and psychological support for people with diabetes.

Tania Slater

- Senior Research Analyst. I have worked in public health research for almost two decades and have also worked in the family violence and justice areas. My research is grounded in positive Māori development and my work at Malatest extends this to a range of different projects.

Lana Perese and Carmel Peteru from their Auckland office and Tim Rowland from their Wellington office will also be involved in this work.

Please feel free to contact Malatest on 0800 002 577 with any questions.

Upcoming male survivors' conference

The South-South Institute (SSI) on Sexual Violence against Men and Boys is holding its third conference in Christchurch between 5 and 10 November.

The conference has three key themes:

Building bridges by bringing everyone together locally, nationally and internationally
Changing the language, changing the discourse – and embracing diversity to be inclusive of all victim survivors
Developing capacity, knowledge and skills – bringing together leading international experts including survivors and researches, individuals and agencies.

The conference has a wide-ranging programme with a number of speakers from home and abroad. The registration period is still open.

The Ministry will speak at the conference about the adoption of a co-development approach to the development of services for male survivors of sexual abuse.

Find out more / register for the SSI conference