Victim Empowerment Programme

from victim to survivor – healing is possible

• About us
  

  • Our vision
  • Our mission
  • Our strategy
  • How we work and with whom
  • The VEP: then and now
  • Funders

• Services

• Counselling through our Trauma Clinic
• Capacity building and training
• Projects

• Research

• Contact

 

The pain of violation "There is nothing more isolating than the pain of violation. It forces victims to question themselves and their world because it destroys two essential beliefs: their sense of trust and their sense of control over their lives. After the crime is over, victims begin to struggle with their reactions...they are often overcome with fear, anger, guilt and shame. They may feel contaminated and unworthy of help. Their relationships with family and friends can be seriously disrupted. If they become involved with the police and the courts, they may come to believe that no one understands or cares what has happened to them." (The Crime Victim's Book, Bard and Sangrey, 1986)

 

About us

Vision

Our vision is to explore the role of trauma in society.

Mission

The VEP provides integrated service delivery, capacity building, advocacy and research to address the psychosocial needs of victims of trauma and violence – with a particular focus on vulnerable groups – in order to contribute to sustainable reconciliation and healing.

Strategy

• To provide integrated and accessible mental health services to victims of violence and trauma.

• To build capacity to promote the quality and accessibility of victim empowerment services.

• To advocate on behalf of target beneficiaries to ensure that their rights are upheld and needs met.

• To promote a dynamic relationship between research and victim empowerment practices.

How we work and with whom

• As a multi-disciplinary team of mental health practitioners with diverse experiences and skills in research, trauma counselling and trauma management. Our team includes researchers, clinical and counselling psychologists, educational psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, and a consultant psychiatrist. We also have volunteers trained in trauma support, and interns and students who work with us.

• In partnerships on projects with other organisations. For example, we work with Business Against Crime on a victim support system based in police stations. We provide training and support, and on-going supervision of trauma support volunteers and professionals.

• We are a founding partner of Themba Lesizwe, a network of trauma service providers that was launched in 2001, and work as a member of it. Other founding partners are the Cape Town Trauma Centre, the KwaZulu-Natal Programme for Survivors of Violence, and the National Peace Accord Trust. Other non- governmental and community-based organisations are affiliated to Themba Lesizwe. Its goals are to:

  • Promote accessible mental health care services for survivors of violence.
  • Develop standardised training programmes for frontline workers.
  • Conduct research and advocacy.
  • Develop a reliable client information database.

As a member of Themba Lesizwe, the VEP promotes the development of accessible trauma service provision particularly in under-serviced rural areas, and for vulnerable groups like women and children. Themba Lesizwe's web site address is http://www.santsep.co.za

The VEP: then and now

The Trauma Clinic of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation has been offering a trauma counselling service since the early 1990s.

It was set up to offer a free counselling service for victims of political violence. Clients came to the Trauma Clinic because they had been raped, tortured, detained, lost loved ones – or suffered the impact of other kinds of brutality under the label of political violence. Many thousands of people suffered trauma at the hands of the apartheid government's overt and covert forces. Others suffered trauma through conflict between or within warring political structures and organisations, some in the liberation movements – at home and in exile.

Political violence and its effects are still experienced by many South Africans. The Trauma Clinic provides counselling for such survivors, an example of this being our work with ex-combatants.

Since the mid-1990s we have seen a shift from political violence to criminal violence within the country. Resultantly, the Trauma Clinic has seen increasing cases of domestic violence, rape and other sexual assaults, child abuse, murder, armed robbery, car hijacking and the trauma of being a direct victim or witness to such events.

From the late 1990s the Trauma Clinic began counselling refugees and asylum seekers. This included both individuals and groups from various African countries facing violent conflict in their home country and xenophobia here in South Africa. Refugees – children and adults – have become an important project focus for us, along with juvenile offenders, ex-combatants, and the elderly. (See Projects)

As one of the oldest and most established units offering trauma counselling in South Africa, the Trauma Clinic has considerable expertise in trauma work and has become a national leader in clinical interventions and trauma management education. In recent times, the Trauma Clinic consolidated its work by repositioning itself as the Victim Empowerment Programme (VEP). The VEP encompasses a broader perspective to ensure that victims of trauma are treated with respect and dignity.

The VEP increasingly engages in research into the changing face of trauma. We are currently undertaking research into appropriate models of service delivery for ex-combatants.

Our funders

Our work has been made possible over the years by generous funding and support from:

Department of Social Development
International Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Survivors
National Development Agency
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture (UNVFVT)
United Nations Human Rights Commission

Themba Lesizwe – supported by the European Union.

Services

Overview

• Individual, group and family counselling, debriefing and crisis intervention for survivors/victims of trauma.

• Training and capacity development in the awareness of and containment of trauma – facilitated at different levels of sophistication.

• The Programme aims at ensuring that individuals, groups and communities are supported to deal with the consequences of trauma, and break the cycle of violence.

• Training and education is targeted towards frontline workers as well as specialists and professionals working in the field.

• Research conducted within the Programme includes the tracking of trauma cases to assess trends in victimisation, developing appropriate therapeutic approaches and exploring specific aspects of trauma and victimisation.

Counselling through our Trauma Clinic

Introduction

The Trauma Clinic is a department of the Victim Empowerment Programme. The Trauma Clinic helps people deal with their traumatic experiences. We offer short-term counselling and, where necessary, we refer clients to other agencies for longer-term therapy, legal and other specialist services. We also offer specialist services for the psychiatric management of traumatised clients.

The Trauma Clinic offers a free counselling and debriefing service to individuals and families who have been exposed to violence; and we charge a fee for corporate debriefings. We offer counselling in all of South Africa's languages.

Victim empowerment counselling

Our Trauma Clinic has extensive experience in trauma-related work, having been involved in research and service delivery since 1988. The clinic is staffed by a multi-disciplinary team, including psychologists, social workers, and psychiatric nurses. Clinic services include:

• Individual counselling for people who have been affected by violence – both adults and children.

• Group debriefings for couples, families, and company employees.

• Educational talks and workshops on the experience of and reactions to trauma and violence.

• Training courses for service providers working in trauma related fields (for example police officers, social workers, paramedics and teachers). These courses address different aspects of trauma, including the symptoms and basic management of traumatised individuals.

Arranging counselling with our Trauma Clinic

1. Phone us on (011) 403-5102 during working hours from 08h30 to 17h00.

2. Our intake worker at reception will receive your call and ask how she or he can be of assistance.

3. You will be asked to briefly explain the nature of your problem and how it has affected you. This will help our intake worker to determine the best way that the Trauma Clinic can help you.

4. The intake worker will take this information down, and ask for contact details.

5. At a case allocation meeting the counselling manager and the team will determine which counsellor will assist you.

6. That counsellor will contact you to make an appointment.

7. You will meet with the counsellor.

8. At your session with the counsellor or trauma support worker, she or he will be able to offer you the space to talk about what has happened. She or he will discuss the kind of counselling process to follow. If necessary, she or he may refer you to another specialist trauma support organisation.

Should another service provider want to refer a client to the Trauma Clinic, they need to phone our receptionist to book an appointment, and send a referral letter with the client.

Capacity building and training

Introduction

We offer:

• Educational talks and workshops on how to deal with trauma and its reactions.

• Training workshops for service providers working in trauma-related fields. This includes workshops for police, social workers, paramedics and teachers. We also run training workshops with individuals who work with vulnerable groups, like children, women and the elderly. These courses address different aspects of trauma, including the symptoms and basic management of traumatised individuals.

• Training for volunteers in trauma support work.

Training for different groups

• level one - volunteers and community members in trauma support. This is for individuals who have no professional background in trauma work.

• level two - professionals in victim support and trauma management.

• level three - professionals who are working in the field of counselling but who require advanced training in trauma counselling.

Issues addressed in the training offered include:

• The context of violence and trauma in South Africa
• Victim empowerment in South Africa
• Trauma assessment and diagnosis
• Definitions of stress, crisis and trauma
• Phases of trauma
• Acute traumatic stress
• Post traumatic stress reactions
• Post traumatic stress disorder
• Complex and continuous trauma
• Unusual responses to trauma
• Victims' needs and rights
• Basic victim/trauma support skills (like listening, empathy)
• Principles in trauma support work
• Cross-cultural issues in trauma support work
• Debriefing model
• Resource planning, referral management and networking
• Self-care and vicarious traumatisation.
• Brief overview of the counselling skills
• Cross-cultural issues in trauma counselling
• The Wits trauma model
• The debriefing model
• Special issues in trauma counselling (will be selected depending on the particular needs of participants):
• traumatic bereavement
• dealing with depression
• anger and revenge management
• trauma and HIV/Aids
• dealing with suicide
• dealing with traumatised children
• working with refugees or non-nationals
• working with ex-combatants
• working with rape survivors
• Referral management
• Vicarious traumatisation and self-care.

Examples of our training work:
We have been involved in training primary health care practitioners in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the North West Provinces in partnership with the Department of Health. As part of this initiative our other partners in Themba Lesizwe offered training workshops in KwaZulu- Natal and the Western and Eastern Cape.

A training programme was developed and implemented for professionals seeking knowledge on trauma counselling and management. This allowed for a standardised method of trauma counselling which was developed by the University of the Witwatersrand's Psychology Department, and adopted by the Trauma Clinic.

Internship and student placement programme

Each year, the Victim Empowerment Programme provides internship and student placement programmes for counselling psychology interns and social work students from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Projects

The VEP Ex-Combatants Project

Our Ex-Combatants Project arose as a result of research done by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation on the demilitarisation of ex-combatants in South Africa.

This project involves the provision of individual and group counselling to ex-combatants, and research. We hope our research findings will play a significant role in facilitating the reintegration of ex-combatants into societies both in South Africa and in other countries that are recovering from armed conflict. Psychosocial support is also provided for participants to address their psychological and emotional issues.

Understanding the problems facing ex-combatants
As part of the counselling and healing process, the group of ex- combatants we work with is encouraged to talk about their emotions as well as practical issues that affect them. A broad range of issues have emerged through the therapy – from feelings of isolation and anger, to the difficulty of finding or keeping a job.

The healing power of therapy
The ex-combatants have found that dealing with their post traumatic stress symptoms in counselling has helped them to better understand their feelings, and through this to feel more confident about themselves. This has led to many positive spin-offs both practically and personally, including integrating back into their families and communities, overcoming some of the psychological symptoms, and being more successful in getting and maintaining jobs.

The Refugee Project

The Trauma Clinic has been working with refugees since 1997. We have used various approaches to help refugees, through both individual and group counselling. We also lobby government around the plight of refugees, based on our counselling experience and research.

Refugees and asylum seekers face many difficulties related to leaving their country of origin and integration into a new one. The Victim Empowerment Programme plays a role in helping refugees and asylum seekers work through their experiences in a containing and supportive environment. Some of the difficulties refugees and asylum seekers face include:

• dealing with the trauma of atrocities they have experienced or witnessed, breaking up of families, missing loved ones, having no money and leaving behind possessions, and feelings of alienation and despair
• sexual assault
• bereavement
• language and cultural barriers
• maintaining their individual and cultural identities
• fear, anxiety and stress
• dealing with officialdom, including often negative treatment by police and immigration officers
• xenophobia
• teasing and bullying of children
• unemployment.

One of the VEP's specific project involvement since 2001 has been working with the Johannesburg-based Bienvenu Shelter, which offers assistance to refugee women and children who are asylum seekers in South Africa.

In addition to assisting refugees and asylum seekers who come to the Trauma Clinic for individual counselling, we run weekly group therapy sessions at the Bienvenu Refugee Shelter. One is a support group for mothers and the other is a group for children aged between five and seven years old.

The Bienvenu Shelter was set up in 2001 by the Jesuit Refugee Service and the Scalabrini Sisters to respond to the plight of traumatised women and children refugees from various African countries. It is a temporary shelter for women and children refugees who stay for between three and six months while they look for alternative accommodation and try to gain some skills and facilitate integration into South African society.

Most of the refugees who come to the shelter have experienced traumas that they have not been able to deal with. Many have family members who have been killed or are missing, some women have been abandoned by their partners, some children come alone – in addition to which they arrive in a foreign country with no money or possessions. The majority of refugees are from war torn countries such as Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia. There are also refugees from Rwanda who experienced and witnessed atrocities during the 1994 genocide.

Research

This includes:

• tracking trauma cases to assess trends in victimisation
• development of appropriate therapeutic interventions to meet our clients' needs
• exploring specific aspects of trauma and victimisation.

Through our research, the VEP is translating the wealth of data we have collected into research products that will offer insights into the nature of traumas experienced, and the responses required to bring about healing. The increasingly complex nature of trauma in South Africa calls for an evaluation and review of models of intervention currently in use.

As part of Themba Lesizwe, we are developing a client tracking system that will be standardised and utilised by all members of the Themba Lesizwe network.

The VEP uses its research for advocacy and lobbying work concerning victims' rights and needs. For example, our work on victim awareness and trauma management in the Metropolitan Police Services was presented to all the metropolitans' senior leadership. They are consequently receiving increasing requests for trauma awareness and management training from their frontline workers.

Trauma in transition
South Africa is an embryonic democracy and a country in transition. Given our high levels of interpersonal, group and community violence it has become necessary to understand the shifting forms of conflict and violence in the country. From this we can develop intervention strategies that balance the needs of victims, communities and offenders within a human rights framework.

The VEP's work with survivors of violence, both young, old and other vulnerable groups such as women and children, refugees and asylum seekers, ex-combatants, and young offenders, will help inform policy and practice that is essential for the nations' collective mental health.

Contact

Street Address: 4th Floor, Braamfontein Centre, 22 Jorrisen Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

Office hours are weekdays from 08h30 until 17h00.

Postal address: PO Box 30778, Braamfontein, 2017, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Phone: (011) 403-5102

Fax: (011) 403-7532

E-mail: info@csvr.org.za

Team Members Include:

• Boitumelo Kekana - Trauma Professional
• Marivic Garcia - Trauma Professional
• Mpho Matlhakola - Senior Administrator
• Nomfundo Mogapi - Trauma Counsellor
• Serame Masitha - Researcher
• Vusi Tshabalala - Receptionist