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In the spotlight: New data highlights Latrobe City has one of the state’s highest rates of family violence. file photograph
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By ALYSSA FRITZLAFF
LATROBE City houses one of Victoria’s highest rates of family violence, new data from Gippsland PHN and collaborators has revealed. The municipality, along with East Gippsland and Wellington Shire have some of the highest rates in the state, according to Gippsland PHN’s recently released papers. As of June 2021, Latrobe City had the most ‘incidents where young people experienced family violence’ in Victoria, with a total of 1025 incidents per 100,000 people, and the most ‘ambulance call outs for a domestic/sexual violent event’, with 246.7 incidents per 100,000 people. Latrobe City ranked second in Victoria for ‘police call outs for family violence incidents’. The data was compiled by Gippsland PHN, in collaboration with Gippsland Women’s Health (GWH) and the Gippsland Family Violence Alliance. PHN’s paper titled ‘Family Violence: Issues and Impact’, discusses emerging trends in the Gippsland region, including local practitionersseeinganincreaseinchildrenwhohavea history with family violence being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and/or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Local practitioners have shown concern that children’s trauma history is not being explored during the diagnostic process. It was long been suspected by health professionals that childhood traumatic stress can be mistaken for ADHD, due to the overlap in symptoms. Services across Gippsland are reporting increases in trauma in children who have experienced family violence, with rates of children experiencing family violence 1.8 times higher in regional and remote areas in comparison to major cities. Additional findings were that women with intellectual disability are presenting with increasingly complex cases, and in general victims of family violence are presenting with increasingly complex cases. Trends indicate that there is increasingly more than one perpetrator involved with the family, such as ex-partners, fathers, uncles and mother-in-laws. Family Violence is the biggest contributor to homelessness in Gippsland. Gippsland PHN acting chief executive officer Angela Jacob discussed the report’s findings. “This work involves identifying where services
are needed most and ensuring the healthcare sector is well placed to support those in need of help,” Mrs Jacob said. “We provide evidence-based mental health services and wellbeing support programs. “We must also ensure there is access to evidenced-based education and training for general practitioners, allied health and other professionals who are dealing with these issues every day. “As part of this we are developing a localised family violence pathway and associated referral pages for health professionals.” Alliance principal strategic advisor Kim Adams said the papers would ensure victims of family violence are receiving the best care, and improve the relationship between family violence practitioners and health care workers. “It is important to ensure we are supporting those people experiencing violence in the most supportive and holistic manner possible,” Ms Adams said. “It’s also important that we have a consistent understanding of managing family violence risk, along with the supporting the trauma needs of our clients.” Data has shown that healthcare professionals received more family violence disclosures than police. Providers, including general practitioners, nurses, psychologists and therapists, receive 53 per cent of current family violence disclosures and 43.7 per cent of past family violence disclosures. Gippsland PHN’s second paper ‘Family Violence: Services and Projects’, made recommendations for the Gippsland region, including increasing awareness of the types of domestic violence and the impact on health, increased knowledge amongst GPs and other health care professional to identify and respond top family violence, and access to appropriate support for those who experience family violence – regardless of gender. Recently, the federal government released the draft National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032. The new plan outlines 10 years of action across various sectors and levels of government. It takes a “towards zero’’ approach, aiming to end violence against women and children, and examines the prevalence of this type of violence in Australia. The National Plan outlines actions and targets across four National Pillars: Prevention, Early Intervention, Response and Recovery. The pillars
are intended to work together to help break the cycle of violence. This plan will replace the current one, which expires this year. Several concerning statistics were highlighted in the first half of the plan, which cites data indicating one in four women has experienced intimate partner violence by the age of 15, and one in two women have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime. The achievements of the former plan were also examined in detail, highlighting accomplishments such as establishing key infrastructure and strengthening service responses nationwide. GWH chief executive officer Kate Graham welcomed the effort to support the end of gendered, domestic and sexual violence. However, Ms Graham said it is her organisation’s view that the draft plan could better articulate the role of the federal government and ensure clarity between state and federal government responsibilities. “It is unclear what implications or improvements this draft plan will have for Gippsland or more specifically for the Latrobe Valley,” Ms Graham said. “There are no specific financial commitments within this plan and fiscal contributions are required to ensure we continue to work toward ending family violence at national level. “This is particularly so in the prevention of violence and the resources required to invest at a local level and activate community driven initiatives. Prevention of violence will have the most significant long-term impact and through this feedback process we would call on the federal government to ensure increased and sustained funding.” Ms Graham also suggested the inclusion of Parliament one of the government’s commitments stated in the plan. “We welcome the government’s commitment to ‘firmly embed prevention approaches in all settings including in homes, educational settings, workplaces, law enforcement, media, online, the justice system, sport, the arts and community organisations’,” she said. “However we would go further to request that an amendment is included to ensure that Parliament is described as we strongly urge and support positive modelling from our countries leaders.”
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Page 2 — The Latrobe Valley Express, Wednesday, 9 February, 2022
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