Violence referral shock

Barwon Health staff survey identifies issues

A BARWON Health survey has found 61 per cent of staff were not aware how to refer people to appropriate family violence services.

Findings of the staff survey, which was conducted in August last year, included: MORE than half of respondents reported low to very knowledge on how to identify factors that put people at risk of family violence; NINETY-FOUR per cent felt Barwon Health had an important role in responding to family violence; FOUR in five had no previous family violence education or training; FIFTY-SEVEN per cent of respondents had very low or low levels of confidence in documenting a patient’s experience with family violence; and, MORE than 60 per cent were not aware of how to refer people to appropriate support services. There were 524 staff who responded to the survey.

Barwon Health’s Karen Todd, Strengthening Health Response to Family Violence project manager, said the survey informed a baseline understanding of the SHRFV initiative.

The SHRFV program is being rolled out by the Department of Health and Human Services to all public hospitals.

“The survey results showed there is a strong desire among staff to become more engaged and involved in responding to family violence, and have been a factor in tailoring our new procedures, education, information and resources for staff and volunteers,” Ms Todd said.

“There are many changes occurring in the initiative, all aimed at building capacity for our staff and volunteers to be able to better recognise and respond to people experiencing family violence, identified when they present to our health service, while ensuring we provide appropriate support to our staff impacted by family violence,” she said.

“This work is also assisting us to identify when things don’t work well and ways to improve our service system response. These changes encompass the impacts of family violence across the lifespan, from children to older people.”

The roll out of SHRFV the initiative is led by the Royal Women’s Hospital and Bendigo Health.

It focuses on building the capacity and capability of health services to deliver a whole-of-hospital response to family violence.

In two years, the survey will be repeated to compare improvements.