|
The
National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) – the body that
recommends which treatments the NHS should use for specific illnesses and
conditions - invited WAR to help develop guidance for the care and
treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as part of a group of health
professionals, patients and carer’s representatives and technical
experts. WAR became a ‘special adviser’ to the group.
In 2004, WAR and BWRAP gave the group a presentation on Rape Trauma
Syndrome, along with two women rape survivors seeking asylum who had used
our services. They spoke
compellingly about their health and general situation.
The following is the testimony given by one of the women, which was
published in the NICE guideline on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in 2005. A
Quick reference guide to the guideline can be found on the NICE website www.nice.org.uk/CG026quickrefguide.
Hard copies of the guidelines can be ordered from the NHS response line on
0870 1555 455 by quoting reference number N0848 (quick reference guide)
and N0849 (information for the public). Testimony
In 2000 I was arrested
for being part of a group fighting for democracy in my home country.
I was held in prison for two months, during which time the police
raped me. They beat me around
the head so badly that my eardrum was perforated.
I was released, but later they arrested my husband and took him
away in the middle of the night. I
don’t know if he is alive or not. Officials
kept coming to my house to interrogate me.
They threatened to imprison me again, so in 2002 I fled the country
leaving my daughter with my mother. On arrival in the UK I
was interviewed by immigration officials. My English is not good so an
interpreter, who was a man from my community, was present. But I
couldn’t tell them what happened because we can’t talk about rape in
my community—it is so shameful. I
couldn’t even tell my solicitor what happened - he was also a man and I
felt uncomfortable speaking to him. I
was refused asylum. I couldn’t understand
why I was being treated so badly and found that I was always crying.
At my appeal hearing I still couldn’t speak about the rape, but I
told them I had been in prison and tortured.
They didn’t ask me any questions about where I had come from or
what I had been through. I was really upset during the hearing and I
cried. My appeal was refused some months later.
My solicitor didn’t do anything more to help me. I had a friend who came
with me to the appeal hearing. She
saw that I was crying all the time and suggested I should go to Women
Against Rape (WAR) and tell them what happened.
So I did and it was the first time I had been able to talk about it
and it helped me a lot. The
Home Office wanted to send me out of London but I was referred to the
Medical Foundation who took me on for counselling, so I was allowed to
stay in London. And WAR found me a
new solicitor who made a fresh appeal on my behalf.
But after about six months the Home Office closed my file, and I
had to leave the flat where I was living and lost my money.
My solicitor arranged
some emergency accommodation through social services, but I was only
allowed to stay for two weeks. I
had a specialist report about my ear and a psychological report, which
diagnosed that I was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. But
although some people in social services wanted to house me, others decided
my medical evidence was not enough. After
the two weeks, I was homeless again.
It was awful – it was just before Christmas and the weather was
freezing. When I was homeless I had
many problems. I was sleeping
in a park and my bag was stolen by two boys. I went to the police for
help, but they arrested me! I
went to many charities that are meant to help asylum seekers but no one
would help me. The Refugee
Arrivals Project let me stay a few nights but then told me to leave saying
I could sleep at the airport. When
I asked the Medical Foundation for help they said I was not an emergency.
What is the point of trying to make someone feel better with
counselling if you know they have nowhere to sleep that night?
I slept at the airport, on the street, in a church corridor. I just
wanted to die. Fortunately
after a while some nuns took me in to their hostel.
Because of the torture I
suffered I have physical and mental health problems.
I suffer from repeated
ear infections and terrible headaches. When my ear is infected it is so painful I can’t see (I am
awaiting a third operation). I
am also nervous, angry and want to be alone.
I can’t watch TV or speak to anyone.
I tried to get help from a GP because I was crying all the time and
I couldn’t sleep. I keep
seeing what happened back home, reliving the rape over and over.
I have bad memories and I can’t get these things from my mind.
And I really miss my husband and my daughter.
But the GP was not good or sympathetic.
I told him that I am upset, and that I have other problems like
constipation. He just told me that I have depression, and gave me sleeping
pills and told me to eat vegetables. I then saw another GP, who was more
understanding. He changed my pills. He
recognised that I have flashbacks and that I need help.
I still see a psychologist every two weeks and she makes practical
suggestions about my health. She
told me to come off the tablets gradually.
WAR contacted my MP and
then eventually I won the right to stay in the UK.
They helped me get housing and income support.
I see them often and it helps me a lot to meet with other women who
have suffered like me, and to work out how to improve our situation.
Winning my immigration
case was the most important thing. Everything
else depended on that. It
made me feel so much better especially now that I am hoping my daughter
will be able to join me here. Now
I am like a human being – before I didn’t feel human. |