Personal Injury

Sharon Cai is Special Counsel at Koffels Solicitors & Barristers. She has helped hundreds of survivors of child abuse with compensation claims since 2012. She is also a registered nurse with more than 10 years of frontline experience in psychiatric nursing. In this article, she shares what she has learned about living with childhood trauma, and the practical steps survivors can take now.

“Am I normal?”

These are some of the things survivors most often say to me:

“Thinking about what happened makes me feel sick, but I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Every time someone says something or I see something, my head goes straight back to that horrific place.”

“I feel trapped inside my body. I feel like I’m just different to everyone else.”

“Am I normal? What should I do?”

What I tell them is this:

• You are not alone. Feelings like these are a very common response to childhood trauma.
• Noticing your thoughts and feelings is the first step towards healing.
• Try not to push your feelings away. Allow yourself not to feel okay. Suppressing feelings often makes them stronger, so acknowledging them and letting them pass can help.
• Recovery is often a long and uneven journey. Nobody can change what happened, but you can do things now that can make a real difference in your future.

What you can do now

1. Get support for your wellbeing. Professional help can make a real difference.
2. Consider whether to report to the police. This is your choice, and there is no deadline.
3. Find out about your compensation options. You don’t need to have reported to police to make a claim.

How common is child abuse?

Far more common than many people realise. The Australian Child Maltreatment Study, published in 2023, surveyed 8,500 Australians aged 16 and over and found that, before the age of 18:

Read more in our article: child sexual abuse affects 1 in 3 Australians, yet few find justice.

Getting support

Many survivors stay silent for years. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that survivors took, on average, almost 24 years to tell anyone they had been sexually abused as a child.

The effects of childhood trauma can be treated. Support from friends and family can help, but if intrusive memories or difficult emotions become constant or overwhelming, it is time to get professional support.

If you need help now

• In an emergency, call 000.
• Lifeline (24 hours): 13 11 14
• Blue Knot Foundation Helpline, for adult survivors of childhood trauma: 1300 657 380

Longer-term support

A good first step is to talk to your GP, who can refer you to a psychologist or psychiatrist and may be able to arrange a Medicare-subsidised mental health treatment plan. It helps to see someone with experience supporting survivors of childhood abuse. The Australian Psychological Society’s Find a Psychologist service lets you search for psychologists who work with trauma. See also our guide to types of support for survivors of child sexual abuse.

Reporting to police

There is no time limit on reporting child abuse to police. Whether to report is your decision, and you do not need to report to make a compensation claim.

If the abuser is still alive, or you don’t know, reporting may help protect others. Even if the abuser has died, there can be good reasons to report, particularly if the abuse happened in an institution.

You can report at a police station, and in many states you can start the process online or by phone. In NSW, Victims Services can support you through it. Each state and territory has its own victims support service.

Compensation options

If you were abused as a child, you may be able to claim compensation, including:

• even if the abuser has died. Read more about claims where the abuser has died
• even if you never reported the abuse to police
• for serious physical abuse, not only sexual abuse
• in some cases, even if you accepted a payment from an institution in the past. See reopening settled abuse claims.

There are three main pathways:

For most survivors with a viable claim, we recommend a civil claim. Because each option affects the others, we strongly recommend getting legal advice before applying for any of them.

Talk to us in confidence

If you would like to talk about your experience and your options, our team can help in the strictest confidence. Call 02 9283 5599 or complete the form below.