Improving primary health care responses to family and domestic violence

Overview

The Australian Government is developing the next National Plan to End Violence against Women and their Children (the National Plan).

The successor will build on the work of the current National Plan in bringing together the efforts of governments, organisations and individuals across the nation to reduce family, domestic and sexual violence.

The Department of Social Services, in partnership with the Office for Women, is running a public consultation for individuals and organisations across Australia to have a say and help us develop the next National Plan. Go to Developing the next National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children | engage.dss.gov.au to have your say.

Why your views matter

As part of the Fourth Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children, the Department of Health is implementing the Improving Health System Responses to Family and Domestic Violence measure. This measure focuses on building the capacity of primary health care professionals to identify, respond and refer people experiencing family and domestic violence.

This includes trials of new locally integrated models of family violence identification response and referral activities in 6 Primary Health Networks. An evaluation of the trials is due in February 2023.

The measure also includes the development of the Readiness Program, a national training program for primary health care providers to more confidently and effectively Recognise, Respond, Refer and Record disclosures of domestic and family violence. Training starts in late 2021 and will continue until June 2024.

In the meantime, the Department of Health is seeking your views on the role of primary health care in responding to domestic and family violence. The results of the survey will feed into the next round of consultations for the next National Plan which includes targeted workshops with jurisdictions and the National Summit on Women's Safety in early September 2021.