Support group in search for support

IF you are unfortunate enough to fall victim to a horrendous crime, whom do you turn to for support in coming to terms with the ordeal?

Oldham’s victim support service is the only organisation to provide such help, but its lottery funding for three counsellors is due to run out.

RICHARD HOOTON spoke to the service to discover how it has helped countless people across the borough and how it is battling to get enough money to continue.

THE crimes counsellors deal with at Oldham Victim Support cover a vast range but include murder and facing masked men.

Emotional and psychological damage can run deep and victims often have no one to turn to, feeling unable to confide in family or friends.

The group, which is part of the Greater Manchester Victim Support and Witness Protection Service, has 24 volunteers who carry out home visits and 16 who work in the courts.

Three years ago it received £60,000 from the Big Lottery Fund to pay for three trained counsellors.

Success can benefit society as a whole. Victims can be helped back into work, to rebuild relationships, to stop taking costly medication, and to regain confidence.

But the funding runs out in October and the service is having to approach other sources.

Emotional

Wendy Shaw (52), from Lees, is a counsellor who is also trained to help children.

She was already working as a volunteer, which she continues to do, when she took on the role.

Wendy got involved in counselling after her father died. She said: “It made me very aware of how intense feelings can be and how important it is to share that with someone who can empathise.”

Cases are referred to the Oldham branch, which is based in the Meridian Centre, King Street, by social services, doctors, police and the victims themselves.

Wendy said: “Our visitors were giving practical help and emotional support but they are not professional counsellors.

“We give victims a service which no one else offers and it covers the whole family. It’s person-centred counselling, which is very feeling and emotions-based.

“Counselling is a process, it’s a therapy. They do call it a talking therapy but we have to make that person work in the session as well.

“People don’t realise how strong they are and how to use that. A lot is dealing with self-perception, self-esteem and self-assertiveness and changing that around.

“When they end the session they walk out like different people. I use my training but they work hard to turn it around.

“I have found with every client I have had that everyone struggles with sharing thoughts and feelings with members of the family as you protect each other and don’t hurt each other.

“Every client has expressed gratitude to be able to come here, where they know they are safe and can share things with someone they can trust.

“They come through as victims of crime but they often also benefit from issues that they have not dealt with in the past but which the crime has brought to the fore.

“The results have been so good. One woman was held at gunpoint by three masked men. She has dealt with that and is moving on with leaps and bounds.

“She’s become a different person. She’s so strong and confident now.”

Wendy has no doubts about the effectiveness of the sessions and says she would be devastated if the service ended.

She added: “I don’t know anywhere else in Oldham that supports victims of crime. When these people come to us they are in absolute pieces as there is no one to listen to them or for them to talk to.

“I wish I could count how many times people have left saying ‘thank you, you have helped me so much’.

“It’s absolutely heart-rending. But it makes this job so worthwhile. It would be heartbreaking if the service ended.

“It would be horrendous if it ends. In all honesty it would be cruel.”

The district manager of the Oldham branch, Steve Critchlow, said: “We are at risk and are seeking help.

“We are urgently seeking other funding to allow the service to continue its excellent results. Oldham Council supports us in the work we do.

“We can’t afford to lose the service at the end of October. Each year the number of people coming to us is increasing and we are ending up with a waiting list.”