If you get hurt, you should get help.
That’s more than common sense. It is the idea behind so much of the government we support. It is why we have firefighters and police officers, paramedics and hospitals, emergency management agencies and the National Guard.
As a society, we are prepared to see fires and put them out, to see a flood and grab a sandbag or to see bleeding and apply pressure. We are a nation — and a state and a community — that responds in times of need.
But sometimes an emergency creeps in quietly. It’s a fire that smolders or flood waters that slowly erode a foundation. That is why it is good that a new program through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency will bandage wounds that have been left bleeding too long.
Survivors of sexual abuse who did not previously report their crimes will have access to counseling and therapy, thanks to a provision in the law that reformed the state’s statute of limitations.
It doesn’t just give survivors of child sex abuse legal recourse by removing the timeline strings from prosecution and lawsuits. It also provides for the therapy they may desperately need.
This is the kind of thing that would be available if the crime was new. The Pennsylvania Victims Compensation Assistance Program helps with things like medical expenses and counseling — if you report an assault within three days and apply for help within two years.
But a child abused in 1984 might not have had that opportunity, and should not be hamstrung by decisions made by others, especially as sexual abuse is so often a crime of power and control. The scope of that manipulation became evident in the grand jury reports detailing child sex abuse concealed in Catholic dioceses’ secret archives for decades.
Only seven people have stepped forward so far to ask for help, but the grand jury reports spoke of post-traumatic stress, anxiety and suicide attempts that haunted survivors long after the abuse ended.
“Survivors all over Pennsylvania will be better served with this,” said Alison Hall, executive director of Pittsburgh Action Against Rape. Her agency helps about 1,000 survivors a year seeking therapy.
It will also help Pennsylvania as a whole. We are stronger as a society when we are healthier as individuals, and we can make that happen when we ensure that the people who are hurt get help.
