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this offer was withdrawn as it became no longer safe for the counsellor to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.