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Program offers help and hope

RCMP victim services available to Shuswap
10403150_web1_180131-EVN-Victim-Services
Lachlan Labere/Eagle Valley News Shirley Deglan manages police-based victim services out of the Sicamous and Salmon Arm RCMP detachments.

The trauma that can result from being the victim of a crime can be emotionally and physically debilitating.

“You freeze, you don’t know what to do next,” is how Shirley Deglan describes it.

As head of police-based victim services for the Salmon Arm and Sicamous RCMP detachments, it is Deglan’s job to provide crime victims with the resources and support needed to see there is a light at the end of the tunnel and help them move towards it.

“We work through it because we know the steps we have to take, we’re trained and we know that they can come out the other end,” said Deglan.

Deglan took over management of police-based victim services in June. She and a team of volunteers are available 24/7, 365 days a year, to provide confidential assistance to victims of all crime and trauma events. This includes individuals affected by a crime where the perpetrator hasn’t been identified or charged.

“The difference between us and community-based victim services is, because I am associated with the RCMP, I am mandated to report any crime that’s said to me in our conversation, but I let them know before that,” said Deglan.

Victim services personnel will often accompany RCMP officers to situations where people are victims of crime as a result of domestic violence.

“Having that worker there, that victim services person to help the police officer when they’re at files like that takes the workload off that police officer,” said Sicamous RCMP Sgt. Murray McNeil. “They can have that professional person who is trained in this crisis area speak with the victim and alleviate some of that, and get these people the resource they need and some comfort at the same time.”

Police-based victim services is a program provided through the SAFE Society in partnership and under the direction of the RCMP. It’s financially supported by the City of Salmon Arm, the province and by government grants, and is available to residents throughout the Shuswap.

Victim services workers are trained front-line crisis intervention support workers. Deglan says the job requires certain personality traits. You need to be sympathetic but strong, and have the common sense needed to help people get through whatever it is they’re dealing with.

“They need somebody to be their strength at that moment, so we are that person… because we care and because we want to see them healthy and we want to see them come through this as healthy as can be with some hope,” said Deglan. “The more you do it, the more you know it works and you can do this and you tell them we can do this together, and people rely on you to get them through it.”

Deglan and victim services have significant resources and connections to find people the help and support they need. For example, if being the victim of a crime has caused financial hardship, victim services can assist through an application process for the Crime Victim Services Program.

“That helps anybody that’s been a victim get financial assistance to seek counselling or get their home remodelled if the crime has made them immobile, put them in a wheelchair, put them in a walker, you can get financing to get your home remodelled or your vehicle, or loss of wages for work,” said Deglan. “There’s about 50 things that it covers that they can get financing for because of their association with a crime and I can help them with that application and do follow ups and status updates and things for them.”

Police-based victim services personnel are also invaluable resources for victims having to go through court. This includes familiarization with court and court processes, meeting with Crown, translating legal jargon and providing a debriefing after a court appearance.

“We sit with them right in court because that can just be traumatizing and horrible… and we deal with them after court,” said Deglan. “If the accused has been convicted and is going to jail, we put them on the victim notification list, which means if that convicted person is moving from jail to jail or is being released, they notify us and we notify the client that this is what’s happening. And then we see if we need to do a safe plan, whatever their needs are at that point. So we see them beyond court.”

Deglan said she is also big on having clients facing court complete a victim impact statement.

“The police and the judge and the Crown they have all the facts…what the victim impact statement does is it puts the human emotion back into the crime,” said Deglan. “That’s a letter they write, it’s a form but you can do it as a letter, about how it’s affected them emotionally, financially, socially, and that puts the human factor back into it. And the judge does use that in sentencing.”

For Deglan, one of the greatest rewards of her job is helping people who have been victims of crime move beyond that moment of emotional and physical debilitation, showing them, “there are people who care, that there are people who can help you through this.”

“We see the light there, they don’t,” said Deglan. “So we just help them bring that light into focus.”