Ishtar Women鈥檚 Resource Society will be able to cut down on how long women and girls have to wait for counselling with $150,000 in funding from the provincial government.
The money will go specifically to the clinical internship program which will allow the transition society to have four students do their master鈥檚 degrees in counselling psychology, on top of the current four students interning through Ishtar.
Having the student interns will mean more women will be able to receive counselling sooner than in the past, according to Meredith Crough, Ishtar鈥檚 Stopping the Violence program co-ordinator and a counsellor.
鈥淎nd that makes a real difference in the lives of women who have experienced relationship violence, who come to us, all of whom need counseling right now,鈥� Crough said.
The program began last fall, and the funding will be a huge help provide stability and planning.
鈥淚鈥檓 pleased to say that with those additional four supports, we were able to bring the number of women on our wait list at fall which is when they began last year from 100 down to 40 by the end of last year which represents about a six-month reduction in wait times,鈥� Crough said.
When women turn to Ishtar after experiencing violence, they need counselling sooner rather than later, she explained.
鈥淯nfortunately, most of the time we have to say it鈥檚 going to be a six-month wait,鈥� Crough said.
鈥淥n average we receive between 25 and 40 new referrals for women seeking counselling every month,鈥� Crough said. 鈥淭he majority of those, so about 70 per cent, would be for women who are recently out of or currently in situations of high-risk domestic violence, and then the rest are either for sexual violence either current or past, and it turns out the many don鈥檛 disclose this initially. The vast majority also come with an extensive history of early childhood trauma as well as inter-generational trauma.鈥�
91原创 East MLA Megan Dykeman made the announcement on behalf of Kelli Paddon, B.C. parliamentary secretary for gender equality, who joined Ishtar staff via computer link.
鈥淭his is going to be a major benefit to the community, to the women we serve, and to the counseling profession as we push them out into the community who are now advocates for what we do,鈥� Crough commented.
Paddon agreed that not only do the women in need of counselling benefit but so does the rest of society because there will be more trained professionals able to help others.
鈥淭he program is also building strong clinicians who will then go on and that will just be magnified over time to the number of people who will benefit from the influence and the programs happening with Ishtar,鈥� she said.
Having the internships helps fill a definite need, Crough said.
鈥淭he truth is in most of our master鈥檚 training programs, we don鈥檛 have specific courses on dealing with family violence, which is unconscionable given the reality that we know that one in three women in Canada will experience some form of relationship violence across our life span,鈥� she said. 鈥淓very counsellor is going to touch, in some way, this issue and the fact that we don鈥檛 train for it adequately is unconscionable.
Paddon is currently working on a gender-based action plan for the province and will be working with the federal government on funding for the 鈥渃hange we need to see in British Columbia.鈥�
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