THE Mallee Sexual Assault Unit is one of four services to benefit from State Government funding to assist with family violence counselling services for women and children. The government will provide an extra $3.5 million across two years to meet critical demand pressures on counselling services for women and children experiencing or recovering from family violence. The funding will see the recruitment of an additional 22 full-time equivalent counselling staff to provide an extra 40,000 hours of counselling across Victoria, which will help women and children exposed to family violence to access timely therapeutic support to assist them to recover. Counselling services are essential to overcome both the immediate and long-term effects of family violence on women and children, Member for Northern Victoria, Jaclyn Symes said. Its important that people affected by family violence can access high-quality and timely supports, no matter where they live.