Support at WIRCC
Western Isles Rape Crisis Centre is a safe, comfortable space where you can work at your own pace to find a way forward after trauma.
We work from the basis that each person's circumstances, experiences and feelings are different and unique to them. We believe that survivors know best what their own needs are, and how they need to be supported. With this in mind, we can provide support whether your experience of sexual violence was recent or a long time ago, and whether or not you reported it to police.
We can support you after a recent incident or if you experienced sexual violence in the past, whether as an adult or as a child.
You don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to. We will give you the time and space to talk about what is important to you, and we will listen to what you have to say.
You get in touch with us directly, or ask someone to contact us on your behalf. If someone else is getting in touch with us on your behalf, we will need your signed consent to speak with them or take any information. Once we have this we will contact you in the way and at the times you've indicated are best for you. When we first speak with you we will have an initial chat about what support you feel might be helpful for you. This is an opportunity for you to tell us about how things are for you and/or to ask us any questions you might have. You are free to give us as little or as much information as you wish, and can choose not to answer any questions that we might ask you. We will also talk to you about how and when you prefer to be contacted and explain our approach to confidentiality and record keeping. We know contacting us can be daunting.
Support sessions or advocacy work will be led by you and it will be your choice how this is done. Face to face support sessions could involve talking, writing, using art, sitting in silence or using work sheets. In all the work your support worker's job will be to be there alongside you and to listen to you. All work will be reviewed after a period of time, as agreed between you and your support worker.
We can also provide support for family and friends, whether or not their loved one is also receiving support from us. Whilst we cannot discuss or share information on anyone using our services, we can talk to you about how you can support your loved one, and about your feelings about what has happened. If both you and your loved one receive support, we will allocate a different worker to each of you to minimise any potential conflict of interest.
We understand that it can be difficult to feel anonymous in the Western Isles. If you want to be seen in person, we can work with you to access our service in a way that protects your privacy, we have a number of locations we can work from. If you prefer not to meet face-to-face, we can also provide support over the phone, via Zoom/Facetime, by text, by email, and through messaging services.
Our service works under a strict confidentiality policy.
