“There needs to be more trained counselors in Samoa who understand our language and culture and therapeutic processes and can work with our communities. I have had to take on private clients due to the presentation of suicide ideation with young girls who have been referred through friends because they do not know where else to turn.” Moana Regina Solomona, clinical therapist, MJCA, written submission, Inquiry document 13 In 2013, the NHS established the Social Services Unit where suspected victims of abuse can be referred for assessment. Initially the unit was staffed by two overseas volunteers and a head of unit providing educational and recovery programmes. However, it faced a number of issues which included “understaffing, the lack of counseling services in Samoa, access of NGOs to patients at the hospital, management issues and the difficulty of applying the western care model in the context of Samoa”. 104 Given the vast scale of family violence and how it affects nearly two in three women, establishing an allied health system based around a unit with two volunteers and one permanent member of staff is never going to be sufficient. This is again indicative of a lack of commitment within Government to effectively address the problem. It is this lack of commitment that enables family violence to persist and which constitutes a violation of the human rights of the thousands of women and girls, children, and other vulnerable groups who suffer family violence every day. 9.2.3.3 Attitudes of healthcare staff The SLRC concluded that healthcare workers do not receive adequate training in dealing with victims of violence in the same shortcoming as with the Police.105 The importance of training in this area for both services cannot be overstated. It is an opportunity to address the engrained social attitudes which reinforce family violence and can cause significant further psychological or physical harm to victims. It is worth recalling that the ‘no drop policy’ was in part as a result of a woman who was counseled to return to her abusive husband by officers who had not received training in dealing with victims of violence and her husband went on to hit her with a rock, killing her. “(For family violence screening) to be effective and to enable staff to respond appropriately to the needs of women, it needs to challenge healthcare professionals to address the issues of power and abuse in their own lives, at work and in society”. Ramona Boodoosingh, PHD on Violence Against Women in Samoa, Inquiry document 82 Pervasive attitudes of victim blaming exist within the healthcare system, as they do elsewhere and this is a major factor in victims not reporting incidents and maintaining the veil of silence which protects family violence from being addressed. 104 Ramona Boodoosingh and Penelope Schoeffel. (2015). “Addressing Violence against Women in Developing Countries: The Case of Samoa.” Document 82 Inquiry anthology. 105 Samoa Law Reform Commission submission to the Inquiry. Document 38 Inquiry anthology.