The new facility the Beausejour Family Crisis Resource Centre is building in Shediac will have an RCMP comfort room, designed to put victims at ease.
Executive Director Kristal LeBlanc says through no fault of their own, police stations are not the most hospitable, or comfortable environment to be in.
“So we wanted to provide a nice comfy space, where you can come and do your statement with RCMP all in the one building,” says LeBlanc. “So really where you’re coming to do your counselling, and where perhaps you’re staying in one of our apartments, or one of our release beds, that you can do your statement right on site.”
LeBlanc says victims of crimes usually have to go to the station to deliver their statements, and that can be uncomfortable.
“It’s just kind of a cold space, it can be very intimidating,” says LeBlanc. “Perhaps your perpetrator is being held in the next room, it’s just not a very trauma informed space.”
LeBlanc says RCMP officers occasionally come to their existing facility to do interviews.
“It’s just, they need to be set up in the proper way, to have their equipment, to have the double mirror and everything that they need to do their jobs,” says LeBlanc.
She says making everything available under one roof is going to make things easier for people at a difficult time in their lives.
LeBlanc is very excited for this new $3.9 million facility, which they expect to have open by February or March of 2019.
