NZ’s biggest challenge
Family harm is potentially our country’s biggest challenge. Statistics indicate that A¯ otearoa is the worst in the OECD.
The New Zealand Police continue to make adaptive changes to our organisation’s structure to address family harm. We have moved significantly from an organisation focused on establishing whether a criminal offence had been committed, through to its present state of working and collaboration with other agencies (government and nongovernment) to address the causation and make our homes safe for all.
I have spent 20 years of my career in the Criminal Investigation Branch. During that time I have been involved in the investigation of many family harm homicides and significant assaults. Every one of these was preventable, in my view.
Prior to being the Northland District Commander, I worked on the Integrated Safety Response (ISR) pilots. These started in Canterbury and Waikato. ISR is a workgroup dedicated to bringing a collaborative group of agencies together to ensure that a safety plan is developed for all reported family harm. The ISR is a collaborative multi-agency model, which looks primarily to make safe around family harm environments, and then to work with both complainants and perpetrators to help them address the causative issues resulting in the family harm.
What is evident is that there is now an acknowledgement that a significant percentage want to manage these issues whilst maintaining the relationship.
I think back to my time on the front line, policing in the early 90s, where we either arrested one party or advised them to leave the relationship. Fortunately we have come a long way from those days, and we have a lot more available to us in terms of providing solutions to those who want them. Both the ISR pilot sites have seen a significant reduction in serious harm through their work, which all previous models had not achieved.
Since starting in my role in Northland I have had a strong interest in what we are doing to address family harm across the district. My observations to date of Whiria te Muka lead me to believe that we are making steady advances towards providing the right services to the people who need them. I see a passionate team making a genuine attempt to help people with complex issues.
My vision for the district is simple: we need a Whiria te Muka model in all parts of the district to work with people in need of joined-up services, and sitting over the top of this, an ISRtype hub to manage the systems that will support this workforce.
Our homes are supposed to be places of sanctuary for all our wha¯nau. For too many it is the very place they don’t feel safe. Family harm touches everybody’s lives in some way. The challenge is there for us all to make a stand against family harm.
"My vision for the district is simple: we need a Whiria te Muka model in all parts of the district to work with people in need of joined-up services . . . "