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<\/p>\nDolson said helping survivors as quickly as possible after they reach out is vital to mitigate long-term, deeply entrenched trauma.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFolks heal best when they\u2019re provided with positive social responses immediately following a disclosure. When people experience harm and then ask for help, it\u2019s important that we respond immediately. When we don\u2019t, that\u2019s another failure of the system and another betrayal of survivors,\u201d said Dolson.<\/p>\n
Waiting lists of up to two years have led KSACC to triage services according to the severity of a client\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen folks reach out to us, we assess the current risk. That\u2019s based on their current circumstances, other supports available and compounding factors, and then we make a decision on how to triage people accordingly,\u201d said Dolson.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people, when they reach out, they are provided with services immediately. Some are, unfortunately, placed on the wait list and have to wait one-to-two years, depending on our capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dolson predicts KSACC would need to hire five full-time counselors just to deal with the existing waiting list.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a significant issue in our community. Many people have, are currently and are going to experience gender-based violence of some type across their lifetimes in some way. We need to be able to provide responses in a good way immediately, and we\u2019re not doing that,\u201d said Dolson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing an increase in people coming forward and disclosing this harm and asking for help, but this change in social conversation and increase in people disclosing hasn\u2019t resulted in a commensurate increase in funding or capacity for organizations who are trying to address the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue is not unique to Kamloops, as survivors across the province are also facing multi-year waiting lists.<\/p>\n
With the provincial election looming, Dolson said the next B.C. government needs to provide more funding for survivors as well as prevention programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be an influx of funding and support and investing into our communities to address these issues after the fact. What we also need is a real commitment by the government to invest in prevention work,\u201d said Dolson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we provided the prevention dollars and did these upstream interventions, not only would we mitigate the harms of people experiencing trauma first hand, it also includes all of these downstream costs like housing, policing, health care, and lost wages, it\u2019s a significant impact on our economy. There\u2019s real evidence to demonstrate the benefit of investing in prevention programs, but there is little political will.\u201d<\/p>\n