More family violence victim-survivors in central Victoria are reaching support services while facing an imminent risk of serious harm or death, according to new data from the region’s leading provider.<\/p>\n
The Centre for Non-Violence (CNV) assessed the risk factors for nearly 2,500 people who sought help in 2024\/25 and found 42 per cent were considered at imminent risk \u2014 a 55 per cent increase on the previous year.<\/p>\n
“We’re working to keep people safe, so we don’t want to see anyone experiencing this level of risk or lethality,” said the Centre for Non-Violence’s head of strategy and impact, Robyn Trainor.<\/p>\n
The data has been released to coincide with the start of the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence which runs until December 10.<\/p>\n
Ms Trainor said the organisation has seen a growth in victim-survivors having a better understanding of coercive control, which has added to their understanding of risk.<\/p>\n
“These are often the invisible tactics that create fear and risk for victim-survivors,” Ms Trainor said.<\/p>\n
“They don’t always include physical violence, things like technology, abuse, stalking, jealousy, alcohol and drug misuse by the perpetrator, isolation and monitoring.”<\/p>\n
She said the increased awareness is contributing to more reporting, but also placing greater demand on services.<\/p>\n
“We see that police reporting is increasing which is a really good sign \u2014 that victim-survivors are actually reporting,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We’re also seeing increased self-referrals which is an encouraging sign, the specialist nature of the work we do also<\/p>\n
“The positive thing is we’re seeing our staff are identifying this risk and putting in extreme methods of safety planning and risk management.”Calls for ‘wraparound support’<\/p>\n
Ms Trainor said the figures have left the organisation concerned that someone could be killed as a result of family violence if changes are not made.<\/p>\n
“We need that specialist wraparound support across the system, working with police, courts, so that no-one is at risk of lethality,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve seen over one woman a week being killed in Australia.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rhayven Jane says earlier intervention is crucial to keeping victim-survivors safe. (Supplied: Rhayven Jane)<\/p>\n
Rhayven Jane, who runs the Glimmer Initiative, a survivor-led organisation providing support and creative opportunities for women and children affected by family violence, said the data underscores the need for earlier intervention.<\/p>\n
“The key will be to use this information as a basis for providing preventative, active and recovery services to those affected,” she said.<\/p>\n
“There needs to be more advocates provided to victim-survivors so that they are able to access these services during the most vulnerable time of the process.”<\/p>\n
The Bendigo artist said she agreed there must be stronger collaboration across the system.<\/p>\n
“The courts and police need to strongly consider the cumulative impact that victims are experiencing and how the signs of violence are not only physical, but also emotional and psychological,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Failures of the system place people at higher risk, and without extensive and in-depth education through the courts and police on this issue.<\/p>\n
“It can leave those needing protection left to fend for themselves, and trust is broken with those who can keep them safe.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More family violence victim-survivors in central Victoria are reaching support services while facing an imminent risk of serious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[174890,64,63,99,174889,174888,39043,63513,10891,13262,2185],"class_list":["post-307444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-16-days-of-activism","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-central-victoria","tag-centre-for-non-violence","tag-domestic-violence","tag-family-violence","tag-gender-based-violence","tag-regional","tag-rural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}