Lebanon, Pa- On February 15th, the Connected Together Lebanon County representative Ali Perrotto shared that the opportunity for community members in Lebanon County to receive free trauma therapy services are in their final phase. “Individuals can make self-referrals to sign up for a free trauma assessment and begin working on a personalized plan for trauma treatment. There is an online referral form set up on the Community Health Council’s website. Community members can also contact Empower The Mind and SARCC directly to request the services.” says the press release from the Community Health Council encouraging community members to take advantage of this resource.
The hope is that this type of service does not end and SARCC will make sure that this continues to be a service our community has access to “SARCC plans to continue offering no-cost trauma therapy to survivors of sexual violence and their non-offending family members. SARCC and ETM are both working together to secure alternate grant funding to make the general mobile trauma therapy an option for other times of trauma and community violence.” said Ali Perrotto via email. The service was certainly used by community members, according to Ali they received 108 referrals since the launch of this program and 42 individuals completed the evaluation with a total of 356 hours of trauma therapy has been provided.
Two of the organizations in the forefront of violence prevention work are SARCC-Sexual Assault Resource and.Counseling Center and DVI-Domestic Violence Intervention Inc have partnered together to provide assistance to those experiencing trauma through sexual and domestic violence. “SARCC offers, and plans to continue offering, free trauma therapy, support groups, crisis and individual sexual assault counseling, advocacy, and medical and legal accompaniment. DVI offers shelter, counseling, PFA accompaniment, and case management.” Ali shared.
In one final statement to Q Hubo News, Ali Perrotto said that she wants the community to know that the Communities That Care Board is currently working to ensure that long term solutions are established in the community in regards to violence prevention. ” We just need more community members to be involved and invested because one organization, or even the small collection of organizations that applied for this grant, cannot do it alone.” Ali said in her closing statement.
Author: Amaury Abreu
