Volunteers are no longer part of the Regional District of North Okanagan Victim Services program.
Extra help to the organization was cut as of Sept. 1, leaving two full-time, one part-time and one casual staff to administer the program, which is funded by the RDNO.
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“What was happening was the program was getting a bunch of people going on stress leave,” said RDNO board chairperson Bob Fleming. “They were getting called to go to situations that were traumatic, which wasn’t really what they were designed to do. There are a group of professionals, the hired people, to provide the service. The section that is volunteers was envisioned to be administrative and a little bit of back-up for the professionals.”
Fleming said because of the number of calls victim services attended, volunteers were doing things they weren’t trained to do and shouldn’t have been doing.
“As a result, three or four of a relatively small group are out on stress leave, not able to work,” said Fleming.
It’s believed the current program has up to 10 volunteers.
The RDNO Victim Services program opened in January 1994 at the Vernon-North Okanagan RCMP detachment. The program provides support to people who have experienced tragedy or been the victim of a crime from when the incident occurred to and through the criminal justice system, and afterwards through the provincial or federal system.
Program manager Anita Eilander did not immediately return phone and e-mail messages to The Morning Star but said in a written report to council on the second quarter (April 1 to June 30) of 2018, there were challenges with fewer resources.
“Many of the volunteers have not been able to meet their weekly shift commitment and volunteer in-office support has been sporadic,” said Eilander. “The commitment required is substantial, and the ability for a volunteer to meet that requirement has become more and more unsustainable.”
Eilander said it’s been a trend for a number of years, along with the scope of work changing over the years which “has become increasingly difficult for volunteers to manage, and staff have taken over the bulk of files.”
“Files have become much more complex over the years, often requiring multiple services/supports being offered throughout the week, which cannot be managed by a volunteer being in the office for one, three-hour shift per week,” said Eilander who was away herself on medical leave for a large portion of the quarter.
Through June 30, victim services had opened 429 files, compared to 317 through the same period in 2017. The program also spent 68 hours in court providing court support to clients in the quarter.
Vernon-North Okanagan RCMP Supt. Shawn Baher said victim services is a very important program, and the volunteers were a key component.
“It won’t mean more work for our officers, but we’ll have to streamline our operations to see how best we can support the individuals,” said Baher. “We need to make sure that we have the ability to still support the same amount of victims, and we’re looking at that and seeing how it will affect anything.”
Fleming said RDNO will try to get the provincial government to “step up and provide the funding that they should be providing for the victim services program, not rely on volunteer help for what should be done by professionals.”
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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