| Web resource: | www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/resource/download/unlocking-prevention-potential.pdf |
| Type: | Report |
| Title: | Unlocking the Prevention Potential: Accelerating action to end domestic, family, and sexual violence |
| Other Titles: | Report of the Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches |
| Authors: | Campbell, Elena
Fernando, Todd
Gassner, Leigh
Hill, Jess
Seidler, Zac
Summers, Anne |
| Keywords: | Domestic Violence;Family Violence;Sexual Violence;Prevention;Public Policy;Crisis Response |
| Topic: | Primary prevention
Systems responses |
| Year: | Aug-2024 |
| Publisher: | Commonwealth Government, Office for Women |
| Abstract: |
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This report presents the findings of the Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches, commissioned by the Australian Government in response to the rising rates of domestic, family, and sexual violence (DFSV). The review, conducted over 12 weeks by a multidisciplinary panel of experts, focuses on identifying opportunities to enhance prevention efforts across Australia. The report outlines a series of recommendations aimed at expanding current prevention strategies, improving crisis responses, and embedding culturally informed and intersectional approaches in the national DFSV framework. Key areas of focus include the prevention of violence against marginalized communities, the engagement of men and boys in violence prevention, the strengthening of legal and crisis accommodation services, and the implementation of a National Workforce Development Strategy for the DFSV sector.
| Notes: |
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Open access
| Contents: |
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Recommendations
1. National Cabinet Priority:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should agree that "ending gender-based violence, including violence against children and young people," becomes an ongoing priority of National Cabinet.
2. Culturally-Informed and Place-Based Responses:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should strongly embed and build on culturally-informed and place-based domestic, family, and sexual violence responses for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, families, and communities, noting the significant work underway to develop a First Nations National Plan. This should include genuine and ongoing consideration of the evidence provided to the Senate Inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations women and children, and the commitments under Target 13 of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
3. Expanded Prevention Approach:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should expand their approach to prevention to acknowledge the global evidence base to leverage all prevention touchpoints more effectively. This should include:
- An independent review and expansion of Change the Story beyond primary prevention, with a focus on accommodating the evolving global evidence base around the prevention of violence across early intervention, response, and recovery.
- Establishing a five-year co-funded Prevention Innovation Fund, understanding what works better in an Australian context and at a community level.
4. Children and Young People:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should adopt a strategic and coordinated approach to embedding the distinct experiences of children and young people in their own right. This includes through the establishment of a Youth Taskforce under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032, supported by the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission, to ensure implementation of the National Plan accelerates a focus on children and young people.
- Immediate efforts should include support and recovery for young children, developing tailored and developmentally appropriate service responses for child sexual abuse, children and young people who have experienced family violence, young people using violence at home, and young people using and/or experiencing violence in intimate relationships.
- Developing and delivering an appropriate and tailored response to young people escaping violence and seeking financial support and safe housing.
5. Engaging Men and Boys:
The Commonwealth Government, with states and territories, should develop a national, coordinated, and co-designed approach to engaging with men and boys on healthy masculinities and violence prevention. This should include:
- Establishing intersectional, DFSV-informed advisory mechanisms for engaging with men and boys with multidisciplinary expertise.
- Adopting a strengths-based national definition and measurement methodology for healthy masculinities to guide future campaigns and/or program implementation.
- Developing or expanding DFSV-informed program responses across sectors, focusing on healthy relationships and masculinities throughout men's life transitions.
- Developing a national response to the rise of online misogyny and radicalisation through targeted investment in research, collaboration with specialist frontline educators, and evidence-based tech-industry regulation.
6. Women's Economic Equality:
The Commonwealth should undertake further structural reforms to strengthen women's economic equality, recognising the interconnectedness between lack of economic security and vulnerability to DFSV. This should include:
- Abolishing the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test.
- Adopting the WEET recommendation to remove financial abuse against women seeking child support.
- Expanding eligibility for the Low Income Super Tax Offset (LISTO).
- Developing a successor plan to the National Plan to Respond to the Abuse of Older Australians (Elder Abuse) 2019-2023.
- Expanding eligibility to address the economic insecurity experienced by women on visas who are victim-survivors of DFSV.
- Strengthening workplace health and safety laws to complement the positive duty on employers to prevent workplace sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and harassment under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984.
7. Natural Responders - Family and Friends:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should expand the evidence base on how to build the capability of family and friends to identify and respond to DFSV as "natural responders." The Commonwealth should resource Lifeline’s DV-alert to expand its current community-focused program offering, prioritising increased reach and frequency of facilitator-led delivery to regional and remote areas, as well as delivery virtually.
8. DFSV Crisis Response, Recovery, and Healing:
The Commonwealth, through the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and with state and territory governments, should expedite a needs analysis to determine unmet demand in DFSV crisis response, recovery, and healing (excluding police), with a view to developing a pathway to fund demand. This should take into consideration the needs of different groups of women and children and the demand for targeted and culturally safe responses.
9. Funding Uplift for Frontline Services:
There should be a significant funding uplift for:
- Legal services.
- Crisis accommodation.
- Establishment of nationally consistent travel assistance for people escaping DFSV who live in remote areas.
10. Crisis Response and Recovery Services:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should apply a prevention lens to the resourcing and delivery of crisis response and recovery services. This includes:
- Replacing motels and other high-cost temporary crisis accommodation with specialist crisis accommodation that provide wraparound services.
- Resourcing the DFSV sector for long-term case management.
- Increasing linkage between the DFSV and homelessness sectors, and aligning these sectors in national frameworks and plans.
11. Health System Activation:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should activate the health system and workforce as a key prevention lever. This includes:
- Equipping and resourcing General Practitioners (GPs), perinatal, and mental health and alcohol and other drug (AOD) services to identify and support DFSV victim-survivors and people who use violence.
- Creating a specific Medicare item number for GPs that enables them to spend appropriate time with people affected by DFSV.
- Mandating training of professionals in general primary and mental health settings in adult and child safeguarding, including DFSV, as a requirement for registration.
- Increasing cross-sector collaboration between the AOD and DFSV sector and provide specialised services for women that are family-friendly and support caring for children.
12. Addressing Gaps in Responses to People Who Use Violence:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should take targeted efforts to address the significant gaps in responses to people who use violence. This should include:
- Strengthening initial justice responses to facilitate advice and assistance beyond legal needs, including access to crisis accommodation.
- Improving the national evidence base, quality, capability, and supply of men's behaviour change programs (MBCPs).
13. Strengthening Multi-Agency Approaches and Managing Risk:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should work together to strengthen multi-agency approaches and better manage risk, with a lens on harm and safety, for victim-survivors of DFSV, including the risk of homicide and suicide. This should include:
- Developing and implementing nationally consistent risk assessment and management principles.
- Strengthening information sharing within and across jurisdictions.
- Introducing and expanding multi-agency responses, including fit-for-purpose police co-responder models.
- Developing a national approach to strengthen systems responses to high-risk perpetrators.
14. Building the DFSV Workforce:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should work together to build the specialist DFSV workforce and expand workforce capability of all services that frequently engage with victim-survivors and people who use violence. This should include:
- Commissioning analysis into current and future labour supply for the DFSV specialist services sector.
- Establishing a DFSV National Workforce Development Strategy.
- Establishing a strategy for capability uplift across other intersecting workforces, prioritising legal, justice, child protection, and health sectors.
15. Sexual Violence Focus:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should further expand and prioritise work on Action 6 in the First Action Plan of the National Plan to recognise the full range of sexual violence, including where it occurs apart from DFV, particularly noting the recommendations from the forthcoming Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence.
16. Audit of Government Systems Weaponisation:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should undertake an immediate audit of how DFSV perpetrators are weaponising government systems, and respond to these findings. This audit and subsequent plans for reform should be informed by Safety by Design principles.
17. Regulation of Alcohol, Gambling, Media, and Technology:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should work with industries that are well positioned to prevent and reduce DFSV, including homicide, with a focus on alcohol and gambling industries, as well as media and pornography. This includes reviewing and strengthening alcohol and gambling regulatory environments, establishing and embedding national standards for media reporting on gender-based violence, and ensuring age-verification pilot for online pornography.
18. Support for the eSafety Commissioner:
The Commonwealth Government should continue to support the eSafety Commissioner to undertake increasingly complex work preventing gender-based violence, which includes working with the technology industry on the improvement of policies, practices, and accountability.
19. Expanded Functions for the National DFSV Commission:
The Commonwealth Government should expand the functions and powers of the National DFSV Commission and establish it as a statutory authority.
20. Strengthened Data Collection:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should further strengthen data collection in relation to DFSV. This includes working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, increasing intersectional and disaggregated data, establishing a national data set focusing on the extent and nature of perpetration, and prioritising enhancements to the measurements framework for the National Plan.
21. Death Review Processes:
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should develop a consistent approach to death review processes and improve knowledge on the relationship between DFSV and suicide. This includes establishing and uplifting death review panels across all jurisdictions and initiating an urgent inquiry into the relationship between DFSV victimisation and suicide.
| URI: | https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/22783 |
| Appears in Collections: | New Australian Research: August 2024
Reports
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