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2B - The Michigan Daily - New Student Edition - Fall 2004
COMMENTARY
VIEWPOINT
VIEWPOINT
SAPAC changes will provide
better services
Removal of survivor services at
SAPAC harms survivors
APRIL 8, 2004
APRIL 19,2004
BY SASHA AcHEN AND
STEPHANIE VITALE
There has been much said about the
changes at the Sexual Assault Preven-
tion and Awareness Center over the
course of the last few months. We sup-
port everyone's right to have his or her
own opinions about this issue, and so we
would like to take this opportunity to
express our opinion.
The changes that will take place this
summer are a result of the University
dedicating an increased amount of fund-
ing to services for survivors of sexual
violence and to educational program-
ming around the issues of sexual vio-
lence. The changes are also part of
SAPAC's commitment to developing a
coordinated community response to sex-
ual violence. Rather than fragmenting
services for survivors of sexual vio-
lence, these changes are designed to
increase networking among area organi-
zations that are already serving sur-
vivors of sexual violence.
SAPAC has provided high-quality
services for sexual violence survivors for
many years, but has not had the
resources to provide long-term counsel-
ing to all survivors seeking services from
SAPAC. SAPAC is committed to provid-
ing quality counseling to all University
survivors, and transferring counseling to
Counseling and Psychological Services
is designed to work toward this goal. The
counselors who are currently employed
at SAPAC will continue their work at
CAPS, where they will continue to see
many of their current clients, and will
also be able to network with CAPS staff
who serve sexual violence survivors.
Because CAPS is an accredited counsel-
ing agency, both therapists will also
receive position upgrades, and our cur-
rent part-time therapist will take a full-
time position at CAPS. These changes,
then, mark an increase in counseling
resources available to survivors. CAPS
has been providing services to sexual
violence survivors for over 20 years
(longer than SAPAC has been in exis-
tence), and so the staff at CAPS is famil-
iar with these issues. Some have
expressed a concern that because CAPS
also provides services to perpetrators of
sexual violence, a survivor might see his
or her perpetrator while at CAPS. When
this situation is known to exist, CAPS
can schedule the appointment times of
the survivor and perpetrator so that they
will not see each other and work with
survivors to ensure their sense of safety.
Crisis line services will be provided
by SAFE House, which is Washtenaw
County's service provider for survivors
of sexual assault and domestic violence.
This change will allow all crisis calls to
be handled by a single organization.
SAFE House is able to staff a 24-hour
crisis line, so callers are able to speak
with the person answering the phone
right away, which means a faster
response to survivors in crisis.
SAPAC will provide more legal, med-
ical, housing and academic advocacy
services to survivors of sexual violence.
By separating the roles of counselor and
advocate, the new system will ensure
that survivors are able to continue the
therapeutic process while also pursuing
academic or legal advocacy. SAPAC
also continues to provide educational
programming, and the University has
increased resources to these programs,
including raising the position of our
training and education coordinator from
part-time to full-time.
The goal of this system is to allow
multiple partner organizations to
respond in a timely and compassionate
way to survivors of sexual violence.
See ACHEN, Page 38
BY MiA WHITE AND KATHRYN
TURNOCK
We realize that those without a thor-
ough understanding of survivor servic-
es might overlook many of the
devastating barriers the proposed
changes to the Sexual Assault Preven-
tion and Awareness Center have and
will create for survivors seeking help.
The discussion of the fragmentation of
SAPAC's survivor services can become
complicated, which is why it is impor-
tant not only to include opinion but also
fact in such discourse. We'd hope that
as peer educators, Sasha Achen and
Stephanie Vitale would have educated
themselves about the issue before pub-
licly declaring their opinion in the
viewpoint SAPAC changes will provide
better services (04/08/04). We'd like to
clear up some of the facts that were lost
in the viewpoint.
Counseling will no longer be avail-
able at SAPAC. The crisis line at
SAPAC is being shut down. Outreaches
will no longer be done through SAPAC-
trained volunteers and professionals.
These are undeniable components of the
proposal to change SAPAC. Is this a
growth in services? Some would have
you believe so. After speaking to the
president of the University, the vice
president for student affairs, the direc-
tors of both SAPAC and Counseling and
Psychological Services, University
regents, professional staff, researchers
and other experts in the field, it is our
opinion that these changes are in fact a
reduction of services and not a growth.
The facts are quite clear: Survivor
services at SAPAC will be cut. It is time
to stop the disinformation campaign.
The increase in education does not
excuse the loss of survivor services. The
increase in education initiatives is not in
any way dependent on the removal of
counseling and crisis intervention; in
fact, for years, they have worked
remarkably well together within the
same organization.
Achen and Vitale write, "CAPS has
been providing services to sexual vio-
lence survivors for over 20 years (longer
than SAPAC has been in existence), and
so staff is familiar with these issues."
SAPAC was formed when an off-
campus crisis line and CAPS existed as
independent resources. It was the
demand for specialized services on
campus that led to the creation of
SAPAC. Since then, SAPAC has
become a national model for such
resources. What this plan proposes is a
return to what the University had almost
20 years ago and did not work. Is this
what the administration would have stu-
dents believe is a growth?
The viewpoint claims that moving
counseling from SAPAC to CAPS is
working toward "providing quality
counseling to all University survivors."
However, there is no reason to believe
that this move will in any way increase
the quality of counseling and many rea-
sons to believe the quality will decrease.
There are important barriers that exist
for survivors at CAPS. Perpetrators are
served at CAPS. That risk is not simply a
barrier for many seeking services but has
already been a reality for survivors seek-
ing services at CAPS. Achen and Vitale
posit that "when the situation is known to
exist," CAPS will try and work around
this issue. Among other problems, this
leaves unaddressed the obvious issues of
first-time clients and those who do not
wish to disclose about their perpetrator.
We'll leave the fact that CAPS is located
in the most public building on campus
for another discussion.
The demand for long-term services
See WHITE, Page 38
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