Employ counsellors trained on supporting students who have experienced rape or sexual assault
Category: Idea
Voting closed
Currently, counsellors in the University Counselling and Mental Health Advisory Service are not trained on supporting and counselling students who have been affected by rape or sexual assault. Students who refer themselves to the university counselling service seeking support after sexual assault are referred to the Student Welfare Advice and Guidance, and outside services such as RASA Merseyside and Safe Place Merseyside.
Whilst RASA and other services are excellent and useful to students, the university should be supporting students who have experienced rape or sexual assault directly with its own resources as this issue is in epidemic at university. Services such as RASA are not in central Liverpool, RASA is a train journey away from Liverpool centre via central station. Many students live in Carnatic and Smithdown Road which means this using this service could take them 1-2 hours of travel each time they visit.
It is vital that the university supports its students directly by increasing funding to the counselling service and hiring at least two counsellors who specialise in counselling and therapy to support students who have experienced rape or sexual assault.
Comments
YES LUCY absolute queen
Since this idea was submitted, the Guild has lobbied the University for counsellors with specific experience and specialty in dealing with students' who have experienced sexual harassment, assault and/or rape. Consequently, the University have hired new counsellors with these specific qualifications, not only in their counselling service but also in student complaints. In November 2021, we launched Reclaim Our Campus - an all-encapsulating campaign aiming to; tackle rape culture by improving the University’s reporting processes, obtain increased support for those who have experienced sexual violence and to empower survivors. As a result of this, the University are currently in the process of reviewing their disciplinary procedures to increase accessibility for reporting sexual assault whilst also hiring a specialist investigator for disciplinary cases of sexual misconduct. We have also upskilled the Guild Advice team, so they have the expertise on supporting survivors with reporting sexual harassment, assault or rape to the police and external services, and we have extended our Bystander Intervention training, empowering students to call out sexual assault. For further details on this campaign, please see here: https://www.liverpoolguild.org/reclaim-our-campus