Shaun Robinson The New Zealand AIDS Foundation says it’s strengthened its code of ethical conduct and the professional requirements of its counsellors to ensure all its clients are safe. Former NZAF counsellor Silipa Take has been given ten months’ home detention, 250 hours community service and will pay $6,500 reparation after admitting indecently assaulting 10 clients when he worked at the Foundation’s Awhina Centre. “We’re happy that the case has come to a close and that Mr Take has been convicted,” NZAF Executive Director Shaun Robinson says. “For those who were brave enough to come forward and see the legal process through to its end, we hope that today’s sentencing will bring closure.” The charges, laid in October 2012, arise from claims which first surfaced in 2009. After the allegation first emerged Take was asked by the NZAF to resign and he did so immediately. However, NZAF management at the time did not attempt to contact any of Take's other clients to ascertain if they had been similarly affected and if they needed support or guidance. They say that’s because the complainant specifically asked them not to. This was eventually done, more than two years later, when a police investigation was launched. Robinson, who was not working at the NZAF when the first allegation about Take’s behaviour arose in 2009, has since apologised on behalf of the organisation that it did not act immediately. Today he has added that the organisation “truly regret that this happened under our watch”. “Since 2009, we have strengthened our code of ethical conduct and the professional requirements of our counsellors to ensure all our clients are safe,” he says. “We make sure that all our clients know their rights, know what they can expect and we have also made the complaints procedure easier. “I am encouraged that the community continue to show their trust in NZAF and our work by reaching out to our professional team and helping us to keep HIV at extremely low levels within New Zealand,” Robinson says.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 30th April 2014 - 1:36pm