#MeToo has led to an avalanche of calls to Ontario sexual assault centres

Ontario’s sexual-assault crisis centres are in crisis, advocates say.

They faced a fresh wave of demand after the Jian Ghomeshi affair. Now, with non-stop media coverage of sexual assault and the rise of the #MeToo movement, it’s a tsunami.

In January 2016, the wait for individual counselling at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre-Multicultural Women Against Rape was reported at five months. Today it’s 15 months, said counsellor Deb Singh.

It’s similar at the Sexual Assault Centre of Hamilton and Area, said director Lenore Lukasik-Foss: a 100-per-cent increase in helpline calls and a doubling of the therapy waiting list over the past year to 18 months. The wait was two or three months; now it’s six.

“It’s not like we can do something differently. We need more counselling staff,” Lukasik-Foss said. “I’m starting to feel overwhelmed.”

But the flood of interest has not come with a flood of new resources to deal with it.

Funding introduced in Ontario’s 2015 “It’s Never Okay” initiative averaged about $40,000 per centre annually; many got less.

“That is not one woman’s salary here. We have not been able to hire one new counsellor in more than a decade,” Singh said, who said staff and volunteers on the 24-7 helpline are reporting about twice as many calls per shift since about mid-October. The advent of #MeToo has made survivors both more ready and more desperate to see a counsellor with the “rare and critical skill set” to handle this kind of trauma, Singh said, adding even those who can afford a private therapist may struggle to find someone suitable.

Lukasik-Foss, who is chair of the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, said many survivors only seek help once “things are going really poorly” — they’re suicidal, extremely depressed or abusing substances.

Nevertheless, she was adamant that people in need should continue calling.