Les Spencer is general manager for the Survivors and Mates Support Network (SAMSN) and told Dubbo Photo News the charity has been around for 10 years, aiming to support male survivors of child sexual abuse and their families.

“We were founded by survivors of male child sexual abuse because they discovered there were no services for men who needed help, so they created one,” Mr Spencer said.

“We’re predominantly funded by NSW Health and Department of Communities and Justice but we also receive funding from the federal government because we are a national redress support service as well.”

Mr Spencer is keen to promote the service in case any local residents need the support they offer. he also wants to make sure other local service providers understand that SAMSN is there and able to help victims in a specialised way.

“We do a lot of community engagement, and we do training within the community as well, so we equip people with the skills to deal with disclosures of child sexual abuse.

“People who have experienced trauma, including child sexual abuse, live with the impact of that throughout their lives. On average it takes 25 years for a man to disclose that they were sexually abused, so the impacts of that are lifelong.

“But just because they have experienced it, doesn’t mean they can’t live a healthy life.”

He said, according to the statistics, the incidence of suicide amongst such victims is frightening.

“Men are highly represented in suicide stats and that has a lot to do with trauma, so the sooner a victim can come forward and start talking about his trauma, it actually helps him to live a better life and be a better parent, be a better partner.

“We run eight-week support groups, monthly drop-in meetings, and they can be either online or face-to-face – and the online support groups have actually enabled us to have a far greater reach into regional NSW,” he said.