MEMBER for Mount Gambier Troy Bell has welcomed the State Government’s commitment to funding a domestic violence crisis hotline for women across South Australia, but says more funding should be targeted towards services in regional areas.
The $1.66m in funding, announced ahead of the upcoming state budget, will allow Women’s Safety Services SA to employ additional staff to expand its crisis hotline service to run 24 hours a day.
The hotline responded to more than 7500 calls across the state last year.
Although he welcomed the announcement, Mr Bell said securing increased funding for staff and support services, specific to regional South Australia, was essential.
“Every hour, around three incidents of domestic violence are reported in South Australia and the statistics tell us rural and regional women are more likely to be affected than their city counterparts,” he said.
“Women living in regional communities who are dealing with this form of violence can face different pressures, including isolation, lack of transportation and finance and a ‘culture of silence’ in the community in which they live.
“It makes sense to have regional-specific services to address these differences.”
Mr Bell said local agencies were under immense pressure to deal with the demand for their services.
“The Limestone Coast Domestic Violence Service has 3.4 full-time equivalent case managers to cover the entire region and they need ongoing funding to be able to continue supporting their clients in the long-term,” he said.
Following a pre-election promise by the Liberal Government to fund two regional crisis accommodation facilities, Mr Bell said he would seek to ensure the regions are not being left behind when it came to both services and facilities.
“Family violence affects entire communities,” he said.
“By ensuring incidents of domestic and family violence are dealt with swiftly and holistically, we can create a safer South Australia for all.”
Premier Steven Marshall said the extra funding, provided in the coming state budget, would ensure Women’s Safety Services SA was adequately staffed to provide “urgent and specialist trained” support to hundreds more women living in a violent or abusive relationship each year.
Until now, the free and confidential state-wide hotline has only been able to afford to operate 9am to 5pm on weekdays, with calls outside of these hours diverted to a homelessness service run by Uniting Communities.
“Our $1.66m commitment will help ensure hundreds more women living in a violent or abusive relationship are able to access immediate, specialist support from experts trained in the field each year,’’ Mr Marshall said.
“Women’s Safety Services SA has been offering critical domestic violence support and advice through its hotline for the past 29 years and, for the first time, it can be staffed around-the-clock to ensure women are assisted whenever they need it.”
Last year, the DV Crisis Line responded to 7576 calls.
Of those, 1552 became registered clients of the service.
In addition to telephone counselling, trained staff can help find women safe accommodation and provide information about police, legal, housing and financial issues.
The Domestic Violence Crisis Line is 1800 800 098
