For the social workers helping rape victims to soothe emotional wounds, the work can often lead to disturbing side effects.
Irene Ng Wai-ching, service co-ordinator and one of the three social workers at Rain Lily, the crisis centre for rape victims, says she occasionally has very bad nightmares after listening to her clients' horrific stories.
'Some cases are very violent,' she says. 'And our workload is so heavy that sometimes we need to meet six clients in one day. After listening to their experiences, I have dreamed of being raped myself. We cannot tell our families and friends about this because case-related information is highly confidential. We can only seek support from our colleagues.'
Rain Lily faces its own crisis, because of staff shortages, Ms Ng says. When the number of women seeking help from the centre rose sharply, each of the three social workers had to take care of 80 cases at once.
Ms Ng and her two colleagues work around the clock and are available to provide immediate counselling to victims who have just been raped. After they calm the victims, they accompany the women back to the centre, where police interviews and medical examinations can be conducted. They then have to closely monitor the victims' emotional state for the next few months, accompany them to court if a prosecution is made, and provide them with in-depth counselling.
A case that requires in-depth counselling takes between 50 and 70 work hours, often more, depending on how legally complicated a case is.
