Pathways to support services for victim/survivors of child sexual abuse and their families

This report, for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, focused on service pathways – that is, how victim/survivors find out about, access and maintain engagement with the most helpful types of services in both the short and long term. The project team collected data using a survey with victim/survivors and parents/carers, interviews with victim/survivors, and group interviews with service providers.

The project explored how victim/survivors of child sexual abuse (and secondary victims) navigate pathways to relevant and helpful support services to: identify the different pathways for victim/survivors of child sexual abuse in institutional and other extrafamilial contexts; and identify the barriers – and facilitators – to accessing support services.

The key purpose of the project was to inform the Royal Commission’s thinking on strategies and approaches to enhancing the provision of therapeutic and non-therapeutic support services for victim/survivors of child sexual abuse.