Survivors of past rapes told they ‘must be clear of drugs for a year’ before they can receive long-term counselling with rape crisis centre

Rape victims who have substance abuse problems have to be “clear” for a year before they can access long-term rape crisis counselling for historical sexual abuse or assault.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) said that its policy was designed to ensure that survivors “engage with the therapy process fully and to avoid relapse into addiction

It is understood that this policy applies to survivors who may be on methadone as part of their treatment for drug addiction. 

A spokeswoman for the DRCC said: “A person who has suffered recent rape or assault can access therapy and counselling services, regardless of addiction.

“However for a person who wishes to avail of longer term therapy for past sexual abuse or assault, we ask that they be clear of substance abuse for one year so that they can engage with the therapy process fully and to avoid relapse into addiction. Note that the national helpline is available to anyone as a crisis support measure.”

The Irish Independent understands that a survivor of sexual violence was told they would only be able to access three counselling sessions over the phone due to the fact that they were on methadone.

While some services have a safeguarding policy that ensures survivors can fully consent to and participate in counselling without a risk of relapsing, others will have a policy of “meeting women where they are” and accepting that those with addiction problems may also require immediate help. 

It comes as the DRCC said that 14,000 people contacted its national helpline last year.

The DRCC annual report, which will be launched by Education Minister Norma Foley today, said it received 14,012 calls in 2021. This compares to the 13,438 calls it received in 2020.

Of those who called last year, 7,900 were first-time contacts to the helpline while 3,711 were in touch for at least the second time. Over 2,400 callers did not say if they had been in touch before. 

Over 80pc of callers were women, while 18.7pc were men and 0.3pc were recorded by the DRCC as “other”.

A fifth of callers were aged between 50 and 59, while those aged between 18 and 23 made up 17pc of contacts to the helpline. 

The DRCC saw 580 therapy clients in 2021, including 289 new clients and 291 “ongoing” clients. It is a slight increase from the 570 clients that the service cared for in 2020. More than 91pc of the clients in 2021 were women. 

Many of the 289 new clients seen by the DRCC last year had also suffered other kinds of violence, including physical abuse, psychological abuse, harassment and intimidation. 

The DRCC said that in a small number of cases the victims had reported trafficking, stalking, threats to kill and even attempts to kill. 

The majority of new clients knew the person who had raped or assaulted them, and just under 40pc had reported the crimes against them to the gardaí.

DRCC chairperson Ann Marie Gill said that in the course of a challenging year it had made significant progress on developing its work to prevent the harm of sexual violence.

“In 2021, our prevention focus included workplace sexual harassment, furthering our education programmes, and commencing and building a long-term project on consent.

“Part of this new consent campaign was ground-breaking research on Irish people’s attitudes to and practice of consent. The findings including that 70pc of Irish people believe we have a problem with consent, tell us that we need a sea change in attitudes and behaviours on consent.

“In all of these measures, our aim is to advance a safer society with zero tolerance for sexual violence, and thus DRCC was pleased to see the wide focus of the Third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence published this year.”

The DRCC’s national 24-hour helpline is 1800 778888.