DV symposium shines light on private matter

UNIVERSITY of Southern Queensland lecturers India Bryce, Kathy Reeves and Suzanne Reich are excited about today’s presentation.

This year’s symposium has some big names as key speakers presenting today.

One of the organisers of the Domestic and Family Violence Symposium Ms Bryce said the exciting part of the event was the names that were coming to speak today.

“Among the people speaking we have Quentin Bryce, Bob Atkinson, academics in the field, to a victim of domestic violence and a domestic violence perpetrator,” she said.

“We estimate that we would have over 100 people out to this event today.”

Ms Reeves said the aim of the event was to reach a wide scope of people who had to deal with domestic violence and share their knowledge and experiences.

“People who deal with domestic violence such as emergency services, support workers, medical staff and people who work in other fields have been invited to watch,” she said.

One of the focuses of the event is integrated services response which was one of the recommendations to come out of the 2015 Not Now, Not Ever report.

Ms Reich said the problem of domestic violence was complex and affected a multitude of people.

“This is why we have a wide range of people who have dealt with different aspects of domestic violence,” she said.

“You can’t approach domestic violence with a one-sizefits-all solution, each case is different to the next,” Ms Reich said.

Domestic violence in the past was considered a private matter where outsiders wouldn’t interfere.

“The old attitude of ‘that’s not my business’ is an attitude that is changing with more knowledge and awareness on the issue,” Ms Reich said.

The Domestic and Family Violence Symposium will start today at USQ and finish tomorrow.

For more information visit www.usq.edu.au.