Hunter police and VOCAL join forces to support victim survivors

NSW Police and VOCAL (Victims of Crime Assistance League) have joined forces, with two victim support specialists working from police stations on regular days each week.

The program was launched at Waratah Police Station on Friday, after being rolled out to positive feedback in Belmont 15 months ago and Raymond Terrace five months ago.

Newcastle City Police District Superintendent Tracy Chapman said she was "really happy" to see the program in her district to connect victim survivors with VOCAL and other support services.

"It's not about police moving that responsibility to anyone else, it's about working together and having a connected community and whether that's about victim services, whether that's about the investigation that police do, it's making sure all of those people are working together rather than in separate silos."

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VOCAL chief executive Kerrie Thompson agreed.

"We really want both organisations to work alongside each other, wrap that support around a victim survivor and that has a significant improvement on their recovery after crime."

VOCAL senior support specialist Cathy Bremner said she listened to all victim survivors, regardless of the crime, although many had experienced domestic violence or sexual abuse. People's trauma responses varied, she said.

Some she had helped make appointments to visit police stations, others she met when they walked through the door.

She has provided support before, during and after they made a report, helped to explain the process, as well as given referrals to other services.

"Most people when they first come to the police station they're already in a heightened or nervous state, so then to go and speak to a police officer straight up maybe they're - because of previous involvement they've had with police - things may not travel smoothly," she said.

"So if there's me or somebody else from VOCAL [we] might be able to just bridge that gap."

Detective Inspector Steve Benson said specialists complemented police victim support strategies.

"Coming through the threshold of any station can be daunting, especially for those who might not have dealt with police before so if there's anything we can do to make that process easier and give them more support post reporting [we will do that]," he said.

"Sometimes they might ask Cathy something they'd either forgotten or didn't feel confident asking the police, so that might mean Cathy goes to the officer and clarifies certain things or clears up police vernacular or jargon they might not understand or gives them more information."

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