Countywide : New Rape Crisis Hot Line Planned

A Camarillo-based mental health agency has agreed to start a rape counseling hot line after officials of the county’s only rape crisis center voted to close the facility and cut its telephone counseling service.

Interface Children and Family Services of Ventura County will establish the toll-free hot line by the end of the month, said Norman Harris, the organization’s finance officer.

The service will replace a 24-hour telephone hot line for victims of rape and sexual assault that was operated by the Rape and Sexual Abuse Center of Ventura County. The center, based in Thousand Oaks, will close on May 29 because of financial problems, board Chairwoman Denise Brogna said.

Brogna said the center is negotiating with the state Office of Criminal Justice to transfer a $76,000 grant it has received to Interface.

The hot line will provide free counseling and referrals for women, Harris said. The number will be 1-800-660-RAPE.

“We are going to be putting in a rape crisis hot line which is going to function the same,” Harris said.

Harris said he did not know how much the hot line will cost to run, but that Interface will apply for state and local grants to operate the service.

Interface already runs two 24-hour telephone-counseling services: a suicide prevention hot line and Helpline, a referral service for mental-health counseling.

It also publishes a social services directory and runs inpatient and outpatient crisis-intervention programs for children and families through a shelter for abused women and children in Simi Valley.