The current CEO and her newly appointed
successor of the First Step Project gave a verbal update on the
First Step Project:
- The project supported male survivors
of rape and sexual abuse from ages 13 and over in the Leicester,
Leicestershire and Rutland area. The project also offered online
support via Teams and Zoom to men outside of LLR as it was
highlighted that there were only 7 male survivors centres in the
UK. They were a small organisation who had 16 Counsellors and 5
part-time staff.
- Up to 26 weeks of counselling was
offered, with clients who ranged from young adults up to people in
their seventies. In many cases, it was the first time these men had
spoken about their experiences which often happened during
childhood. They also offered up to 12 weeks of therapeutic
emotional support for men who for whatever reason, were unable to
take up the counselling. Another service offered was support and
counselling for secondary survivors of sexual abuse, such as family
and friends of survivors. A further support group was offered to
former clients who have been through the First Step Project, so
they could talk with other survivors and keep in contact with the
project. They also offered 12 weeks of Counselling to prisoners at
HMP Stocken in Rutland, support was also offered at Leicester
prison. However, this offer was withdrawn as it became no longer
safe for the counsellor to go into that environment due to prison
staff shortages at Leicester Prison.
- The
challenges which the First Step Project was facing were detailed.
It was explained that the charity was receiving multiple
inappropriate referrals from the primary care sector which was
affecting the charity and members of the public. There were
numerous cases of men being signposted to the First Step Project
from the Primary Care Sector who in some cases, had attempted
suicide in the previous 24 hours. While it was acknowledged that
the Primary Care Sector was facing a lot of pressures and that the
First Step Project would be happy to help where they can, it was
commented that inappropriate referrals were doing more harm than
good. The charity did not have the capacity to support men in such
a vulnerable condition.
Comments:
- Members raised questions about the
referrals being received by the charity from the Primary Care
Sector and whether they thought this was a knee jerk reaction from
the health service. In response, it was commented by the CEOs that
it appeared to be a tick box exercise by the triage team of the
Mental Health Crisis unit. It appeared that they simply checked if
a patient had a history of sexual abuse and then signposted them to
the charity without assessing if that was appropriate. As mentioned
in the presentation, they were contacted by men who in the previous
24 hours had attempted suicide and had been in contact with the
Bradgate Unit. It became so frequent an occurrence that the charity
developed a prepared statement which was put onto their website and
detailed the criteria for an appropriate referral. The Managing
Director of Leicestershire Partnership Trust (LPT) advised that she
would speak with the Mental Health Crisis Team and discuss the
situation. She would also collect the contact details for the CEO
of First Step and liaise with them about how they can resolve the
situation.
- Members were interested to find out
what was the gap in the statutory care services, such as
Children’s and Adult Social Care, that the charity was
filling. It was explained that First Step only dealt with clients
who were sexually abused and that because of this niche, their
waiting lists were minimal. This topic prompted further discussion
about the voluntary and charity sector and their interactions with
the Primary Care Sector. It was commented on that the situation of
First Step was not unusual and that more communication and
transparency was needed between both parties. The chair discussed
with the Chief Executive of Voluntary Action Leicester about
drafting a report on the voluntary sector which would explore the
area in detail.
- The Director of Adult Social Care
& Commissioning as well as The Associate Director for
Integration & Transformation, advised that they were unaware of
the existence of the First Step Project. The members noted that
they would like to develop a dialogue and links between themselves
and the charity, so that they were able to utilise the service and
refer the correct clients to the charity. The CEOs of First Step
advised that they were not surprised that many of the members were
unaware of their existence as male sexual abuse carried a lot of
stigma.
- The chair raised again the situation
of prisons in Leicester and that the charity was forced to stop
their support for inmates due to safety concerns. The chair also
commented on the lack of coverage of mental health on the Board and
asked for officers to prepare a report on the topic.
AGREED:
- The Board noted the
presentation.
- The Managing Director of LPT to
speak to the Mental Health Crisis Unit and liaise with First Step
Project to help improve the current referral situation.
- The Chief Executive of Voluntary
Action Leicester to liaise with Public Health about a potential
report looking deeper into the voluntary sector.
- Chair requested a specific mental
health focused agenda, specifically on the demand in the
system.
- The ICB and LCC Adult Social Care
would make contact with First step.