Tier 1 – Foundational knowledge

Knowledge

You need to know:

• there is no ‘one way’ to disclose
• partial disclosure is common, many victims and survivors disclose after decades, and some may never disclose
• the reasons why victims and survivors may not disclose
• many victims and survivors have negative experiences of disclosure and may be retraumatised by having to repeat their disclosure
• victims and survivors are likely to disclose to people they trust and feel safe with.

Skills

You can: 

• use a trauma-informed lens to tell the person:
  • you believe them
  • the abuse was not their fault
  • you recognise how difficult it is to talk about child sexual abuse
• engage with victims and survivors in a way that builds trust with you and your service
• find out information about your role in relation to mandatory reporting of the sexual abuse of a child or young person or whether failure to report offences apply.

Tools to support you
 

Child sexual abuse disclosure can be triggered by a range of life events

Mary starts sex education at school and realises that her grandfather wasn’t allowed to touch her in the ways he did when she was in kindergarten. She tells her friend, who convinces her to tell her class teacher.

AJ moves into a nursing home after his third fall. He becomes distressed every time a care worker tries to help him shower or toilet. He tells the care worker he was sexually abused in an institution as a child and that this is the first time he has discussed it.

Amani is pregnant with her first child and at every ultrasound has flashbacks about what happened to her when she was a small child. She discloses to the technician why she is so upset.

Jess is 14 and is seeing a therapist about their family’s reaction to Jess being non-binary. They tell the therapist that a friend of their older brother has been pressuring them to send nude photos online.

Michael reads about a new public inquiry into child sexual abuse and decides to register his interest so he can speak up about being abused in care.

Knowledge

You need to know:

• you can play a helpful role if you respond to disclosures of child sexual abuse with compassion and using a trauma-informed lens
• a timely and helpful response to disclosure may:
  • reduce the risk of further sexual victimisation of the victim or survivor
  • facilitate access to specialist services
  • minimise the impacts of child sexual abuse over time
  • provide better outcomes for the victim and survivor
  • protect other children and young people.
• it is not your role to investigate or to ask detailed questions – this is the role of expert child protection interagency teams and police.

Skills

You can:

• stay calm and focus on the victim or survivor and what they need from you
• provide information about services to increase accessibility for victims and survivors
• seek support/debriefing afterwards if you need to discuss your own emotional responses to the disclosure
• identify people in your organisation that you can speak to if you need further information and support.

Did you know?

Child safety is everyone’s responsibility

One of the values underpinning the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021-2030 is: 

‘Child safety is everyone’s responsibility. Australian, state and territory governments, organisations, industry, communities, families, kin, carers and individuals all have a role to play.’

Responding to disclosures from adult male survivors

Survivors & Mates Support Network (SAMSN) is an organisation specifically funded to work with men who have experienced child sexual abuse. It may be that the victim or survivor you are working with would like to ‘talk more with a mate’ and you can put them in contact with SAMSN.

Practice tip

How to respond to a disclosure from a child or young person

It can be useful to follow the SAFER steps:

S – stay calm
A – ask open-ended questions
F – focus on safety
E – explain next steps
R – report 

You might also find the Australian Institute of Family Studies poster on Responding to children and young people’s disclosures helpful.

Responding to disclosure for adult survivors

You might like to review the Bravehearts tips for Responding to an Adult’s Disclosure of Childhood Sexual Abuse.

What do victims and survivors tell us?

The National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse raises the voices of victims and survivors to reduce stigma and promote healing through research, workforce development and education and training.

Knowing what you think and believe about child sexual abuse

There are many community attitudes that are uninformed or lead to misconceptions about child sexual abuse. These can be shared and reinforced by the media, our peer group, our family, our religion or culture, and institutions we come in to contact with. It is important to be aware of our own attitudes about child sexual abuse, which can influence how we recognise and respond to victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.

Take a moment to think about what you have heard about:

• the prevalence of child sexual abuse
• where it happens
• who it happens to
• the people who perpetrate child sexual abuse.

It can be difficult to challenge our beliefs and to recognise where they come from. The 
table below of common misconceptions about child sexual abuse from the UK Centre of 
Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse may help you in these reflections.

You might like to compare the figures in the above table with those from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study and our Child sexual abuse: Get the facts factsheet.

Knowledge

You need to know:

• the disclosure of child sexual abuse can lead to challenges that ripple beyond the victim or survivor, affecting parents and caregivers, kin, siblings, extended family and supporters, including partners and friends
• a disclosure of child sexual abuse may:
  • lead to a range of emotional responses (e.g. shock, shame, disbelief, grief and anger)
  • have practical implications (e.g. financial, housing, schooling)
  • require engagement with complex systems (e.g. child protection, criminal justice, family court)
• disclosures about children or young people displaying concerning or harmful sexual behaviours should be taken seriously to reduce the risk of harm to other children and young people and to ensure that both the victim of child sexual abuse and the child or young person who has displayed the harmful sexual behaviour receives an appropriate response and support
• in the case of intrafamilial child sexual abuse, the disclosure may place significant strain on family and community relationships and may affect the extent to which the victim or survivor is supported.

Skills

You can:

• respond compassionately to the distress of families, kin and supporters following a disclosure of child sexual abuse
• listen and validate the concerns of family, kin and supporters with a focus on assisting the victim or survivor within the scope of your role
• provide support and/or referrals for practical issues for family, kin and supporters
• raise any concerns with your manager about a child or young person displaying concerning or harmful sexual behaviours.

Did you know?

The importance of a parent believing a disclosure

• Being believed and supported by their parent(s), kin and supporters is one of the strongest predictors of future wellbeing for the child victim or survivor
• This guide for parents from the Victorian State government provides information for non-offending parents and other non-offending caregivers, including on responding to children who have been sexually abused.

Support services for families and supporters of victims and survivors

In testimony provided to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, counsellors described their role when working with family members and supporters as “… giving permission to recognise and attend to their own pain”. 

Despite the need, professional support for families and supporters is often limited and difficult to access. Some good starting points are: 

• Your local sexual assault service
• Bravehearts – offers a range of support services for children and young people who have been impacted by child sexual abuse and their non-offending family members
• Blue Knot Foundation – a national service for anyone with experiences of complex trauma and those who support them
• PartnerSPEAK (Victoria only) – provides advocacy and support for non-offending partners, family members, friends or anyone else who is affected by a person’s involvement in child sexual abuse and child exploitation material
• 1800RESPECT – National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• SAMSN – a peer support phone line for male survivors, their families, and supporters. 

Male victims and survivors of child sexual abuse

Male victims and survivors of child sexual abuse may experience particular barriers to disclosure. They can experience concerns which stem from incorrect societal beliefs and attitudes about masculinity – the same beliefs and attitudes which make it difficult for them to speak out about the assault, including:

• shame and anger at being seen to be a ‘victim’ and fear of not being believed: (‘It doesn’t happen to boys’)
• fear that it will perpetuate homophobic and transphobic attitudes: (‘It doesn’t happen to “real” men’)
• fear of being blamed: (‘Males are always interested in sex so it must have been my fault’)
• fear of becoming a perpetrator: (‘Boys who are abused as children grow up to be abusive men’). 

A helpful resource for men of all ages and their supporters is Living Well: A guide for men.

What do victims and survivors tell us?

Child safety is everyone’s responsibility

‘I know from my own experience, my mum carries a lot of guilt for stuff that happened to me. She wasn’t there. She didn’t know. But definitely that’s something that’s hard for me, knowing that she feels so guilty and blames herself. So definitely [you need] support for the family as well, 100%, especially the parents.'

– Female victim-survivor, quoted in Warrington et al. (2017) on page 80

Practice tip

Why is it important to offer support to families, kin and supporters?

• Family members can struggle to understand and respond appropriately to disclosures, particularly where the abuse is perpetrated by a family member or close friend. They may grapple with a range of emotions in both the short and longer term, including distress, guilt, shame, blame, anger, and a sense of failure as a parent to protect their child.
• Responses from family members and other significant supporters may also be affected by their own history of child sexual abuse and the extent to which they received an effective response (or not).

Knowledge

You need to know:

• the safety and wellbeing of a child, young person or adult who is disclosing to you is an immediate priority
• you may have responsibilities in relation to mandatory reporting in your state or territory and relevant policies and procedures in your organisation
• where to find information in your organisation relating to how disclosure from a child, young person or adult should be reported and recorded
• how to respond to an historical disclosure of child sexual abuse and whether you have any reporting and record keeping obligations and what they might be
• there may be legal consequences for failure to report
• that any person is lawfully entitled to make a report if they are concerned for a child’s welfare, even if they are not required to do so as a mandatory reporter
• online child sexual abuse, including online grooming, should be reported to the Australian Federal Police’s Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation
• illegal or harmful online content, including photos or videos, should be reported to the eSafety Commissioner.

Skills

You can:

•  enquire about immediate safety concerns of the child, young person or adult victim or survivor:
  • are they at risk of further sexual abuse?
  • are other children or young people at immediate risk of child sexual abuse that would trigger mandatory reporting obligations? Please note these may be children currently at risk from a perpetrator who sexually abused an adult victim or survivor as a child
• seek support from a manager or review the resources provided in this Guide to determine:
  • whether you have a responsibility to make a mandatory report to your relevant state or territory child protection organisation
  • the information you should provide to the victim or survivor about reporting processes and next steps
  • what you need to record, and any confidentiality and consent requirements. 

Resource

Reporting, record keeping and privacy

Do you want to find out more about mandatory reporting in your jurisdiction?

• Mandatory reporting legislation and resources – the Australian Institute of Family Studies provides nationally relevant information.
• Reporting illegal or harmful online content – online abuse can be reported to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, and online harm can be reported to the eSafety Commissioner.
• Record keeping – these Administrative record keeping guidelines for health professionals, produced by the Australian Government, may be useful for some service providers.
• Privacy – Australian Privacy Principles govern privacy at the federal level. For information about additional privacy requirements in your state or territory please see State and territory privacy legislation.

Knowledge

You need to know:

• the value of referrals for safety and medical, psychological and sexual health and wellbeing
• some people may want a referral after disclosing, but others may not
• victims and survivors can have a range of needs, including for social and emotional support, health care and advocacy, which may mean more than one referral is required
• where to find information about culturally safe and accessible services in your local area.

Skills

You can:

•  ask a victim or survivor if they want a referral for practical or emotional support
• recognise signs that victims and survivors may need urgent referrals to services, for example:
  • they are expressing thoughts of self-harm or suicide or that they will harm someone else
  • a child or young person discloses recent sexual abuse
  • they have presented in crisis following recent abuse and require medical care
• find information about referrals for specialist services.

Practice tip

Key referrals

To locate a sexual assault service near you, visit these sites: 

• Australian Sexual Assault Services Directory provided by the National Association of Services Against Sexual Violence (NASASV)
• 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) provides:
  • confidential information, counselling and support service available for free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to support people impacted by domestic, family or sexual violence
  • information and resources for professionals who support people impacted by domestic, family and sexual violence
  • 1800RESPECT Service Directory.
• To locate a wider range of services, visit our Get support page.