THE expansion of a telephone helpline for women in violent households needs to ensure access is extended to country communities, according to the head of the region’s specialised domestic violence service.
Centacare Limestone Coast Domestic Violence Service manager Susie Smith welcomed moves to expand the Domestic Violence Crisis Line to operate 24 hours a day, but urged the State Government to capitalise on the expansion in regional areas.
“How can we ensure women in more remote areas of our region, who we know from research have very low expectations that there is even a service out there, to assist them to attain safety, let alone how to access that service?” she said.
“How will we market it to them?
“How will they know what they are experiencing is unacceptable and requiring intervention?”
The State Government has pledged $1.6m over the next four years to enable the Domestic Violence Crisis Line to operate 24/7 for the first time.
Until recently, the free and confidential statewide hotline has only been able to operate 9am to 5pm on weekdays.
Human Services Minister Michelle Lensink said in addition to telephone counselling, staff could help women find safe accommodation and provide information about police, legal, housing and financial issues.
Along with Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Assistant Minister Carolyn Power, Ms Lensink will be travelling to Mount Gambier in coming months to host a domestic violence roundtable with related organisations, service providers and other key stakeholders.
Ms Smith said an adequate workforce, affordable and accessible long-term accommodation and perpetrator intervention programs were the three strategic policy priority areas she hoped to discuss at the forthcoming roundtable.
She said the centre had three full-time equivalent case managers to cover the entire region, with workers forced into a “crisis mode” due to an unprecedented demand for services.
She said women seeking support outside the city only received a phone assessment and service.
“As you can imagine, this more often than not results in the women disengaging with the service and potentially returning to the violence situation as the trusting relationship between worker and client has not been able to be made,” she said.
“We know from our locally kept statistics that women in more outlying areas are much less likely to identify or be identified as victims.
“We also know these women in rural and remote areas are much more likely to experience domestic violence and more likely to be murdered by an intimate partner.
“Additionally even those in Mount Gambier that receive support are only able to access support until the risk is mitigated, so it may be we assist her to attain an intervention order, but we then have to close the file and move on to the next cases waiting in line.”
Ms Smith said crisis accommodation for domestic violence victims was always full and risked pushing women into a cycle of homelessness and called for more accessible and appropriate long-term housing solutions.
She added a stronger focus on involving and engaging domestic violence perpetrators about the consequences of their actions and assisting them to seek help in changing their behaviour were important strategies to avert further offending.
“Apart from the court-mandated program and programs run in the prison and correctional services, there are no programs for perpetrators of domestic violence,” she said.
“If you are not engaged with the criminal justice system, which most perpetrators are not, then there is no support for behavioural change.
“This means no accountability for perpetrators.”
Contact the Domestic Violence Crisis Line on 1800 800 098 for support.
