Men in need forced to wait

MEN convicted of family violence are waiting up to seven months to access an urgent court-ordered program.

Bethany Group is Geelong’s sole provider of the 27week men’s behaviour change program that helped 57 men over 48 weeks in 2020.

The program sees men complete intensive group training sessions in a bid to change their behaviour and end a cycle of abusive behaviour toward women and children.

Bethany access, support and family safety executive manager Bernadette McCartney said she was “very concerned” by the length of the waiting list, with participants waiting an average of 6-7 months to be offered a place.

“It’s worrying that by asking potential participants to wait so long, we’re giving them a palpable message that their need to change their violent behaviour isn’t urgent — but it is,” she said.

“The long wait can be a barrier for men who refer themselves to the program, and then can’t start it for months.”

Ms McCartney said support workers encouraged participants to refer to other programs in nearby areas such as Werribee and Ballarat, but were unable to ensure they did this.

“Unfortunately, these are lost opportunities to provide timely access to one of the hardest-to-reach service groups,” she said.

Ms McCartney said the program sought to dismantle the sense of self-entitlement many perpetrators had that led them to feel they could control women and children.

Geelong defence lawyer Stephanie Mawby, whose clients include those charged with family violence offences, said the intake of people into behaviour change programs needed to expand.

“What would be good to see would be an injection of resources to offending behaviour programs — like the men’s behaviour change program,” Ms Mawby said.

“In my view, that’s a very effective program and ought to be available to a number of people, whether it be court ordered or on a voluntary basis.

“I had one client who did (the men’s behaviour change program). He said, ‘I got a lot out of it and I was perhaps doing things at the time that I didn’t realise was family violence’.”

A state government spokeswoman would not say if the government was looking to open more men’s behaviour programs in Geelong. Instead, the government said Bethany Group received additional funding during the coronavirus pandemic to support men’s behaviour change programs.

“We continue to back the agencies providing this vital work — to date, we’ve invested more than $3bn for family violence prevention and response, which is more than the commonwealth and all the other states and territories combined,” she said.