Calls for more funding as sexual assault victims in Kamloops face years-long wait for therapy

Dolson said helping survivors as quickly as possible after they reach out is vital to mitigate long-term, deeply entrenched trauma.

“Folks heal best when they’re provided with positive social responses immediately following a disclosure. When people experience harm and then ask for help, it’s important that we respond immediately. When we don’t, that’s another failure of the system and another betrayal of survivors,” said Dolson.

Waiting lists of up to two years have led KSACC to triage services according to the severity of a client’s case.

“When folks reach out to us, we assess the current risk. That’s based on their current circumstances, other supports available and compounding factors, and then we make a decision on how to triage people accordingly,” said Dolson.

“Some people, when they reach out, they are provided with services immediately. Some are, unfortunately, placed on the wait list and have to wait one-to-two years, depending on our capacity.”

Dolson predicts KSACC would need to hire five full-time counselors just to deal with the existing waiting list.

“This is a significant issue in our community. Many people have, are currently and are going to experience gender-based violence of some type across their lifetimes in some way. We need to be able to provide responses in a good way immediately, and we’re not doing that,” said Dolson.

“We’re seeing an increase in people coming forward and disclosing this harm and asking for help, but this change in social conversation and increase in people disclosing hasn’t resulted in a commensurate increase in funding or capacity for organizations who are trying to address the issue.”

The issue is not unique to Kamloops, as survivors across the province are also facing multi-year waiting lists.

With the provincial election looming, Dolson said the next B.C. government needs to provide more funding for survivors as well as prevention programs.

“There needs to be an influx of funding and support and investing into our communities to address these issues after the fact. What we also need is a real commitment by the government to invest in prevention work,” said Dolson.

“If we provided the prevention dollars and did these upstream interventions, not only would we mitigate the harms of people experiencing trauma first hand, it also includes all of these downstream costs like housing, policing, health care, and lost wages, it’s a significant impact on our economy. There’s real evidence to demonstrate the benefit of investing in prevention programs, but there is little political will.”

According to reporting from Kamloops RCMP, the detachment received 150 sexual assault reports in 2025, a 13 per cent increase from the year prior – a statistic which Dolson said is likely underreported.

by Elora McCormack

Calls for more funding as sexual assault victims in Kamloops face years-long wait for therapy

Our Community