Saturday Magazine

15 Sep 2024

Saturday 14th September, 2024: Not Alone: A Gay Men’s Trauma Information Group

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Saturday 14th September, 2024: Not Alone: A Gay Men’s Trauma Information Group

Janet and Macca discuss a new pilot programme, NOT ALONE, is a joint initiative between three specialist services – Eastern CASA, South East CASA and Sexual Assault and Family Violence Centre (which is in the Barwon region), working with Sexual Assault Services Victoria (SASVic), to provide a statewide group program for gay men.

This group is a pilot program and was created in response to the advocacy of two gay men who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse, who called for more support options for gay men who have experienced sexual violence.

While all Victorian specialist sexual assault services work with all survivors, including gay men, there wasn’t an accessible group running just for gay men.

The Not Alone Group is a trauma information group for adult gay men who have experienced sexual abuse in childhood. It is an 8-week online pilot group for approximately 8 – 15 attendees using a secure online platform.

It will be held online, and will start on Thursday 24 October.
It will be held every Thursday for 8 weeks between 3-5pm.

What the group hopes to offer participants

The group offers participants an opportunity to understand more about how trauma from sexual violence impacts them today in a safe group environment as well as trauma information and tools for support.

It is best suited to men who haven’t received extensive support or information on sexual violence impacts and are seeking a supportive space with other gay men who may have had similar experiences. This group will be delivered by senior counsellor advocates from the three specialist sexual assault services. It will also be evaluated by SASVic.

It is a pilot program, to see if it’s helpful, and if it is, they hope to deliver it again in the future. That’s important to keep in mind if you’re not in the right space to go to a group right now or maybe those dates don’t work for you.

How to enquire

- - - The specialist sexual assault sector has always worked with all survivors, including gay men and others from LGBTIQA+ communities and has run many groups over the years. However, in the past most groups have been for survivors that have already received therapeutic support from a specialist service. This group is specifically for people who have not yet received extensive support or information on sexual violence.Sexual violence is being forced, pressured or tricked into doing sexual things when you don’t want to. It is often a crime and can take many forms, including child sexual abuse, image-based sexual abuse, sexual harassment and sexual assault. It can affect people regardless of sex, gender or sexuality throughout their lives and can be perpetrated by strangers or people who are known to the survivor.Nationally, you can also call 1800RESPECT which is available for free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to support people impacted by domestic, family or sexual violence.If you are interested to find out more, you can call Eastern CASA on 9870 7330 and request to speak with intake.Why are we running the group now?
      - This pilot program was created in response to the advocacy of two gay men who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse, who called for more support options for gay men who have experienced sexual violence. They have both assisted in designing the program and will contribute to the program’s delivery and evaluation.
      Why is the evaluation important?
      - The program will be evaluated and we hope that if this group is helpful, we can use the feedback from the evaluation to refine it further and apply for funding to run it again in the future for more people.
  How to get help
  - If this group isn’t what you’re looking for, but you’d like to speak to someone, you can contact a specialist sexual assault service.
  - It can be difficult to speak about sexual violence. Specialist sexual assault services support adults and children who have experienced sexual violence, whether recently or a long time ago.
  - To find and contact your local specialist sexual assault service, you can visit our specialist sexual assault service map found on the SASVic website.
  - (link in the Podcast notes)
  During office hours, you can contact your local specialist sexual assault service.(see link to service map)If you have experienced a recent sexual assault or would like after-hours support (5pm-9am), please call the Sexual Assault Crisis Line on 1800 806 292.
  The Sexual Assault Crisis Line is a state-wide confidential telephone crisis counselling service for people who have experienced both past and recent sexual assault,
If you are in danger, or have an emergency, please contact emergency services on 000.