>> MICHELLE: Welcome to today's webinar on Family
Violence Risk Screening and Risk Assessment
Tools.
1800RESPECT are glad to welcome you presenter,
Jane French.
Jane is a psychologist with an extensive background
in child protection, as a practitioner, manager,
trainer and policy developer.
She spent 3 years working for KPMG as a human
services advisor and manager
and was involved in the development of the
Victorian Risk Assessment and Risk Management
Framework
that has been adopted by a number of jurisdictions.
Jane is currently the Director for Human Services
for Medibank Health Solutions
and her current focus sees her taking on a
lead advisory role for the Royal Commission
into the
Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Assault.
This webinar is live and interactive. You
are encouraged to participate by posing questions
to the presenter.
These can be typed into the message box, which
is located at the bottom left hand side of
your screen.
Please note that the questions will be answered
at the end of the presentation.
After the session, you will be directed to
an online survey as your feedback does help
us to improve the running of future 1800RESPECT
webinars.
We also encourage you to participate in the
discussion tool, which you'll be redirected
to after completing the survey.
We will be closing this thread at 2.45pm
I'd now like to pass to Jane to begin today's
webinar.
>> JANE: Thanks Michelle, and hello everybody
and welcome to this second webinar that we're
running as part of 1800RESPECT.
So thank you for having me along today. Before
we get into the topic of risk screening and
risk assessment
I just wanted to say a few words about the
approach that I'll be taking today.
We know that family violence is most commonly
perpetuated against women and children,
although it's certainly acknowledged that
men can be the victims of family violence as well
and that it can occur across a wide variety
of relationship types.
But predominantly this 1800RESPECT is part
of the government's strategy to reduce violence
against women and children
so that's the approach we're taking and
throughout the presentation I will be talking about
women and children primarily who experience
family violence. At times I use the language
of 'victims' and 'perpetrators' too
when we're talking about risk factors particularly.
How risk factors relate to either the victim
or the perpetrator.
So just having said that, let's proceed
and get on with the presentation.
So the idea of today is that I'll take you
through, give you an overview of risk screening
and risk assessment
and for each of these different tools we'll
look at what each of them are,
What is a risk screening tool? What are the common
features of these tools? Who should use them
and how should they be used?
And the same for risk assessment.
What is a family violence risk assessment
tool? What are the common features and how
should they be used?
So the first question that we pose when we're
talking about risk screening and risk assessment
is, why are they needed?
The answer to that is that the nature of family
violence is such that it often remains hidden
and we do,
we've learned that we do need tools to help
us identify the presence of family violence
and the level of risk that people are experiencing
as a result of that.
We know that males do perpetuate family violence
against women and children
and have a pattern of behaviour that's controlling,
threatening and coercive
and it's certainly not easy for people to
come out and talk about what they may be experiencing
of they're,
if they currently experiencing that control
and those threats.
So, and that just goes to the nature of family
violence, that we obviously need to understand
that but
there are some common elements that are consistent
across a whole range of definitions of family
violence
and those common features are that violent
behaviour is repeated, controlling, threatening
and coercive
and occurs between people who have had or
a having an intimate relationship and in most
cases, violent behaviour, it's part of a range
of tactics used by the males to exercise power
and control over women and children
and we know that family violence can be both
criminal and non-criminal in nature, the non-criminal
focusing on your controlling access to finances
or what women and children can do and where,
and who they can be in contact with.
So community attitudes also play a big part
in why we need to have risk screening and
risk assessment tools.
While as a community we've come a long way
in our understanding of family violence,
there's still a great deal of work to be done.
So every couple of years there's
a national community survey around community
attitudes to violence against women,
and on this slide here there's some results
from the 2009 survey.
So still in our community, 22% of people believe
that domestic violence is perpetuated equally
by both men and women.
34% of people surveyed believe that rape results
from men not being able to control their need
for sex.
That's a third of the community almost.
13% of people still agree that women often
say 'no' when they mean 'yes'
and 1 in 6 people still thinks that a woman
is partly responsible if she is raped when
drunk or drug affected.
1 in 5 believe that violence can be excused
if the perpetrator regrets what they have done,
and I guess the big one for me is that 8 in
10 people in the community say it's hard
to understand why women stay in violent relationships.
And I think that makes it particularly hard
for women to come forward when they know that
8 out of 10 people that they're going to
be communicating with are not going to understand
why she's in this situation that she's in.
All of those reasons, I think, are pretty
solid ones for why we should risk screen and
do risk assessments.
But another factor that's emerged over the
last ten years or so and has certainly made
Australian governments sits up and take notice
is the financial costs of the impacts of family
violence.
So, there was some work done. It was done
in Victoria, it was done some years back but
it was reprinted by Vic Health in 2010
and it's certainly worth a look. They looked
at the burden of disease associated with family
violence,
looking at what percentage of problems are
caused by particular issues so what this work
told us was that
family violence or violence against women
contribute to 9% of health care problems for
women aged between 18 and 40 and that's
almost double the levels associated with excessive
alcohol and illicit drug use.
So I think those finding certainly made governments
of the day sit up and take notice
and recognise the need to do something from
a financial and a health care perspective
for women and children ongoing.
We also obviously know that children exposed
to family violence there's a broad
range of outcomes
that are negative, that impact on children's
health and well-being and education and social
development across a number of years.
Many years in some cases.
So now I can get on to talk about risk screening.
So risk screening tools essentially assist
in identifying someone who may be experiencing
family violence.
For all those reasons that I've just outlined
but people don't come forward about it,
people are worried they won't be understood
and they're also coming from a place where they
may be,
may have been threatened or experiencing controlling
behaviour.
So risk assessment is often done is settings
where it's routinely applied to all clients
that enter the service.
So certainly there are a number of hospitals
around Australia that routinely screen in
maternity wards
for the presence of family violence.
The example that I know is that maternal and
child health nurses in Victoria who see just
about every mother and new born baby
routinely ask if the woman is feeling safe
and whether family violence is something that
she needs help with.
So it's often applied in that way, as a
routine, whole of population screening tool.
And the purpose of the screening tool is to
basically help workers at a community level to
identify the presence of family violence and
then make an appropriate referral if they
detect that violence is an issue.
So most screening tools are brief and include
questions that can help to trigger a conversation
about family circumstances
and to identify if someone may be at risk.
And I guess that's the key message, it's
about starting a conversation.
So risk screening tools are usually brief
and involve between 1 and 6 questions.
The jury's still out in terms of validity
and reliability of these tools and by that I mean
that they're not 100% guaranteed to detect
family violence.
So even though a woman might answer 'no'
to a whole range of questions about whether
she's at risk of family violence,
just because she says 'no' doesn't necessarily
guarantee that she's safe.
So they always used to be used within that
context and from that point of understanding.
These tools need to be administered when women
are not in the presence of their partner obviously
because women are very unlikely to indicate
that they are feeling threatened by their
husband or partner if he's present.
And risk screening tools often screen for
risk in relation to both women and children.
So the key take out message I guess in using
risk screening tools
is that they must be used in a context of
partnerships and pathways to family violence
agencies and police.
There's no point risk screening unless you
know what you're going to do if you get
a result that says
this person needs some help and I need to
do something about it.
So we've got some examples of risk screening
tools here for you.
The first one is from the Family Relationship
Centre's Framework and the Family Relationship
Advice Line Framework around Risk Screening.
So the questions here that they ask routinely
are:
Do you have any reason to be concerned about
your own safety or the safety of your children?
Do you have any other concerns about your
children's wellbeing at the moment?
Do you have any reason to be concerned about
the safety of anyone else?
How do you think your partner or ex-partner would
answer these questions?
And obviously family relationship centres
are working wth families often in the context
of separation,
as we'll learn later that is a key, one
of the key risk factors associated with risk
and family violence.
New South Wales Health risk screening tool
asks:
Within the last year have you been hit, slapped
or hurt in other ways by your partner or an
ex partner?
Are you frightened of your partner or ex partner?
And if the woman answers 'yes' to these questions
then follow up questions are asked, which are:
Are you safe to go home when you leave here?
Would you like some assistance with this?
One other risk screening example, this is one
that I'm most familiar whit's from the
Common Risk Assessment an Management framework
in Victoria,
often referred to as the CRAF.
This, the risk screening tool in the CRAF is,
the policy encourages all community services
to use this risk screening approach
in their ongoing role in assessment and case
management of people.
So the questions here are:
Are you ever afraid of someone in your family
or household? If so, who?
Has someone in your family or household ever
put you down, humiliated you or tried to control
what you can or cannot do?
Has someone in your family or household ever
threatened to hurt you?
Has someone in your family or household ever
pushed, hit, kicked,punched or otherwise hurt you?
Are you worried about your children (or someone
else in your family or your household)?
Would you like help with any of this now?
So a broad ranging list of questions that
again are designed to open up a conversation
so that someone I guess has the space to indicate
if any of these things are concerning them
and relevant for them now.
So just to wrap up in relation to risk screening.
The take out messages:
That risk screening is often prescribed in
government policy or programme policy
so I'd certainly encouraged everyone online
today to check with their program and sector
policy frameworks
and determine whether there is a requirement
to screen for family risk in the sector that
you work in.
Risk screening questions can obviously be
built into any ongoing assessment and case
management practice of workers and professionals.
And should form, be part of an ongoing conversation
about safety and wellbeing.
And always, as I've indicated before, be
accompanied by clear referral protocols
through to specialist family violence services
if family violence is detected.
So we're going to do a quick poll to get
you involved a little bit.
How many of you currently screen for the presence
of family violence in your role?
How many of your actually use risk screening
tools as part of your ongoing assessment and practice?
We've got results coming in. Bit like watching
a race, it's going up and down.
Overwhelmingly, we've got people saying
yes. So that's fantastic.
We've got 20% of people involved today indicating
that they don't routinely use screening
tools
and gain that encouragement to go back to
your organisation and have a think about
where risk screening for family violence might
fit in the context of the work you do in your
community.
OK we'll move on from there. Thanks, Michelle.
So we're moving on to talk about risk assessment
now.
Just to give you some definitions:
Basically, risk is the product of the likelihood
of a particular event occurring and the consequences
of the event occurring.
And that's what needs to be weighed up in
any risk assessment.
If the likelihood of an event occurring is
extremely high but the consequence of that
is low
then professional judgement needs to be used
to determine what the ultimate level of risk
is.
So it's a process whereby the level of risk
to an individual is determined.
Again, risk assessment should always be accompanied
by referral protocols, safety planning and
risk management strategies.
There's a lot of research around about risk
assessment and the research identifies that
there are usually
three elements to an assessment of family
violence risk. Those three elements are:
The victim's own view of their risk.
So people who are experiencing family violence
often have a very accurate view of the level
of risk they are at.
So when women say, 'I'm scared he will
kill me', we need to take that very seriously.
There are studies that demonstrate that the
victims's own view of their level of risk
have more validity and reliability than all
the fancy screening tools that may be out there.
The other element of risk assessment is the
identification or the presence of evidence
based risk factors
and that's what we're going to focus on
largely in the rest of this presentation,
looking at the risk factors that,
the evidence tells us, are linked most commonly
with poorer outcomes and violent outcomes
for women and children.
The third factor, and most risk assessment
tools in Australia rely on professional judgement.
And professional judgement I guess is made
up of your qualifications and your experience,
the supervision you get, your understanding
of the complexities around family violence theory,
and really, risk assessment at this level
should always be done by a professional who's
very well qualified
and experienced in family violence so that
they've got that layer of professional judgement
to view the assessment through.
So in practice, as I said, there are a range
of assessment tools that are used and that
are available.
None of them, again, are perfect predictors
of risk and if you detect risk you need to
make an appropriate referral.
But awareness of evidence based risk factors
will certainly help you, community workers
or health workers if you're not experts in
family violence, get a strong sense of when
expert help is needed and when a referral
should be made.
Just a final word on reliability and validity.
So there some research done and I've just
put up some research from 2008 that identified
4 tools that you could find online
that have been found to have reasonable validity
in assessing, in predicting, the danger, the
risks associated with
for women and children with family violence
but again,
these should be used in the hands of professionals
with great experience around family violence.
But they're online and something you might
like to have a look at down the track.
So what we're going to with the next few
slides is look at the risk factors associated
with both the victim, the perpetrator and
their relationship and these are taken from
the assessment framework that I'm obviously
most familiar with, which is the Victorian
Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework
but again, these evidence based risk factors
are common to most risk assessment frameworks
that are out there.
So coming, looking at it from the perspective
of the victim, the woman or person experiencing
family violence,
I've already touched on their own assessment
of the level of risk being a really good predictor
of future risk
and in fact, being a better predictor than
most tools out there.
Pregnancy is another risk factor, it's not
uncommon for family violence to commence or
intensify during pregnancy.
Hence, routine risk screening occurring in
maternity hospitals and maternal and child
health centres around the country.
Depression or mental health issue, preexisting
condition or that may develop as a result
of the violence but
victims who are vulnerable to depression and
mental health issues may experience increased
vulnerability to family violence
partly because of their circumstances and
partly because it makes it harder to access
help or
you know their resilience is certainly down.
Drug and alcohol use on behalf of the victim
is also another factor in increasing risk
so that needs to be taken into account when
doing a risk assessment, that using alcohol
or other drugs
can lead to increased vulnerability to violence.
Suicidal ideas or previous attempts to commit
suicide can also indicate that the person
experiencing family violence
is extremely vulnerable, that the situation
has become critical and that urgent help is
needed.
And people experiencing family violence who
are isolated are also at increased risk.
So isolation may occur as a result of the
perpetrator displaying controlling behaviour,
which may result in the victim having, or
the person experiencing the violence, having
fewer social supports
and this may be a factor where people have
a disability or limited social interaction
and support.
So where a victim is more vulnerable, there is
a far greater likelihood of violence,
particularly if they're isolated from family,
friends or social networks.
The asterix, as we go through these risk factors,
the asterix indicates that these risk factors
are associated
with an increased risk of lethality or the
person experiencing violence being killed
by their partner.
So watch out for the asterixes as we go through.
So the next couple of slides are looking at
the risk factors associated with the perpetrator
and there are quite a few asterix in this list.
But the use of a weapon in the most recent
event of violence indicates a high level of
seriousness in the situation.
We know that previous behaviour is likely
to predict future behaviour.
So if weapons have been used once, it's
likely that they'll be used again.
Having access to weapons is pretty concerning.
Perpetrators who have access to weapons, particularly
guns,
are much more likely to seriously injure or
kill a victim than those without access.
Where previous, where perpetrators have previously
harmed or threatened to harm the victim.
So we know that psychological and emotional
abuse are good predictors of continued abuse,
including physical abuse
and previous physical assaults also predict
future assaults.
Strangulation or choking is a common method
of killing by male perpetrators of female
victims.
So previous attempts to choke victims need
to be viewed very seriously
and evidence suggests that credible threats
to kill victims by perpetrators are often
genuine.
So again, it needs to be taken very seriously
if women are saying, 'He's threatened to
kill me'.
Further risk factors with some more asterix
here are stalking.
Stalkers, males who stalk are more likely to
be violent if they have had an intimate relationship
with the victim.
Stalking when coupled with physical assault
is strongly connected to murder or attempted
murder
so stalking behaviour and obsessive thinking
are highly correlated and need to be taken
seriously.
Same with sexual assault, if there's been
a sexual assault, that correlates with a high
likelihood of further violence against the
woman
and again, is a predictor of lethality.
Perpetrators who breach or disregard intervention
orders demonstrate little concern for the
law and law enforcement agencies
and are therefore more likely to continue
to breach the law.
Drug or alcohol misuse or abuse on behalf
of the perpetrator, so serious problems with
drugs,
alcohol or prescription drugs or inhalants
lead to impairment in social functioning and create a
risk of family violence.
And this also includes temporary drug induced
psychosis
and also obsessive and jealous behaviour towards
the victim have found to be associated with
lethal assault as well.
Other risk factors associated with the perpetrator,
controlling behaviours. Men who think they
should be in charge are more likely to use
various forms of violence against their partner
and complete control of the victim's activities
and extreme jealousy have been associated
with severe battering.
Unemployment is associated with an increased
risk of a lethal assault
and in addition the sudden change in employment
status, such as being terminated or retrenched
may also increase the risk.
Perpetrators with mental health problems,
particularly depression,
have been found to be correlated with murder
suicide outcomes in family violence.
Mental health issues such as depression and
paranoid psychosis can also elevate the risk.
So the presence of a mental health issue has
to carefully considered in relation to the
other factors
and obviously referrals, urgent referrals
and help needed.
Perpetrators with a history of violence are
more likely to use violence against family
members, we also know that.
So if a male is violent or somebody is violent
outside of their family, they are likely to
be violent within the home as well.
Other risk factors associated with the perpetrator
relate to threats.
So where there's been previous harms or
threats to children, to other family members,
to pets or other animals
or the perpetrator has previously threatened
or tried to commit suicide themselves.
All of those threats need to be taken very
seriously.
And just to go back to the pets or other animals,
there's a, research tells us that there's
a correlation between
cruelty to animals and family violence. It's
being increasingly recognised so there is
actually a direct,
established, a direct link between family
violence and pets being abused or killed.
So the use of threats against pets can also
be used as leverage by perpetrators to control
family members,
"You leave me and I'll kill the dog"
or "I'll take the dog" or things like that.
So finally we just look at the risk factors
that are associated with the relationship.
And they're separation, escalation and financial
difficulties, sort of situational factors surrounding
the couple's relationship.
So for women who are experiencing family violence,
the critical periods of high risk
around separation is
immediately prior to taking action to separate,
during the initial stages of separation and
immediately afterwards.
So when women say that they stay with the
perpetrator because they're afraid to leave
they are pretty generally accurately anticipating
that the level of risk will increase.
Increase the risk of the violence in the future.
So the data on separating suggests that women
are particularly at risk within the first two
months of separation.
Escalation is a factor, that's when violence
is occurring more often or becoming worse,
that has been associated with high risk and
lethal outcomes for women and children victims
and also low income and financial stress including
addiction. So gambling addiction, for example,
are also risk factors for family violence.
So that's a very quick run through
of the evidence based risk factors
that are common across a range of risk assessment
tools and frameworks but taken from the Victorian
framework.
What I want to do now is just give up the
chance to do some thinking and do a bit of
a risk assessment ourselves.
So I'm going to play you a snippet from
an interview that Andrew Denton did on, 'Enough Rope'.
It's going back some years now but it's,
it's with Ingrid Poulson who's estranged
husband
killed her children and her father after they
separated.
Ingrid's gone on to become an advocate for
reforms to the way that family violence is
managed in NSW in particular.
So as we listen to this clip, it goes for
about two minutes, and I just want you to
note down, what, based on the
risk factors that I just ran through, how
many risk factors and what are they?
What do you identify? What can you hear in
terms of risk as Ingrid speaks?
So just a bit of a warning that she
goes into a fair bit of detail about the violence,
although it's not graphic detail, but certainly
if people don't want to listen to her individual
account
feel free to mute your computer and if you
keep an eye on the chat box on the left hand
corner
we'll let you know when the clip's finished,
otherwise we'll go to that.
The first clip is Andrew Denton introducing
Ingrid.
>> ANDREW DENTON: Here's a fact. One in four relationships in Australia will be scarred by domestic
violence.
It's a subject tinged with shame and too
often kept out of sight. Not for my next guest.
Three years ago her estranged partner killed
both her children and her father, before killing himself.
She believes the system that should have protected
her family let her down, and now she's trying
to change it step by step,
to spare others the hell she's been through.
Please welcome Ingrid Poulson.
>> JANE FRENCH: So that's the introduction, and now we'll
just listen to the two minutes or so of Ingrid
being interviewed by Andrew
around the circumstances leading up to the
death. Thanks.
>> INGRID POULSON: We'd been having problems for
a while that turned around differences between
us but the final straw was violence. He started
to become violent and there was one night
in particular
where he started to throw things around the
room and it was while the children were in
the room and
I just thought that, that's unforgivable.
So I barricaded myself in the room and left
the next day.
>> ANDREW DENTON: He didn't take the estrangement
well, did he? He rang you persistently
>> INGRID: He did.
>> ANDREW DENTON: When did what appeared to
be harassment move to something more threatening?
>> INGRID: He had spoken of, he had spoken
threats on the phone.
Basically, for, I guess to intimidate me into
coming back to him.
But I went to work one day and came back and
there was a letter on the windscreen of my
car which stated,
that the was going to kill me and himself.
>> ANDREW DENTON: His behaviour became more
erratic after that.
Can you explain what happened when you went
to pick up the children after an access visit
one night?
>> INGRID: He basically tricked me into coming
into the house by saying that he had cooked
dinner for us
and that it was ready and when I went in there
was no dinner and he started to
beg me to come back and cry and crawl around
on the ground and say that, well he'd set
up the flat for me to come back
and I was not interested in this and I actually
made a move to the telephone to call my father
to help come and mediate
because I felt like it was getting out of
control and I did't like him behaving in that
manner in front of the kids.
And at that point he went into the kitchen
and took off his jacket and said,
"There's six thousand dollars in my bank
account. It can pay for my funeral."
And picked up a knife and went to go at his
throat.
And because the kids were with him in the
kitchen then I raced around and basically
wrestled this knife off him
and calmed him down and I wanted to take the
children and leave but he said,
"If you take Marley then I'll do it, I'll
die right now." So
I took my son and left and called the police.
>> JANE: Thank you. So we will do a quick poll.
Quick poll now on how many risk factors did
you identify?
So we've got from 1 to 8
Did you listen to Ingrid's talking? How
many risk factors did you find?
Results are coming through. Some popular choices
are 5, 6, 7.
6 looks like it's winning. 6 risk factors
is probably the most common response.
So, and just to go through them. These are
the ones that I identified. So,
he was certainly becoming violent, I guess
I found eight, but professional judgement
needs to be applied.
The ex-partner was becoming violent. He was
escalating. He'd started throwing things.
They were estranged. He was harassing and
so I guess stalk her on the telephone.
He made threats to her. He had access to a
weapon and we know that the knife that he
used,
he used a weapon in the most recent incident
where he pulled that knife and he made a threat
to kill himself.
So the conclusion to Ingrid's story is that..
Well the other factor that you would't have
heard in that clip
is that he also breached the first intervention
order she took out, within a matter of hours,
and a couple of days after the incident that
Ingrid talks about there, he came back to
the house and raped her
and then when she was off getting treatment
for that and her father was looking after
her children, he,
the ex-husband came back and murdered Ingrid's
father and her two children. So
that's the story there and Ingrid's gone
on, as I said, to be a strong advocate for reforms
around coordinated practice and risk assessment
and making sure that all professionals involved
in helping people at a grass roots level understand
the risk factors associated with family violence.
So we'll get rid of those poll results now
and just move on. Just to wrap things up.
So risk assessment, I've taken you through
the evidence base there but it's complex
and professionals trained in working with victims
of family violence should be using risk assessment
tools.
I think it's helpful, for all workers involved
in community and health settings to have an
understanding of what the risk factors are
so that if they identify the presence of these
risk factors when working with clients
an immediate referral can be made to family
violence or to the police.
Collaborative practice is definitely the key
to protecting women and children and people
in the community from family violence.
We'll just give Ingrid Poulson the last
say, again just quickly to explain why that's
so important. Thank you.
>> INGRID: OK. Domestic violence needs to
be taken out of the cupboard really and looked
at for what it is.
>> ANDREW DENTON: Which is?
>> INGRID: It's people caught in a situation
they don't feel, they can't really get
out of.
>> JANE: And I think that does sum it up beautifully,
that people who may be experiencing family
violence
are caught up in a situation that's beyond
their control and that they can't get out
of and the research is clear
and tells us that we need to help people to
be able to explain or indicate that they are
experiencing
family violence and do need help with that.
So that's it from me. Thank you all for
you time and for listening and I'm going
to hand back to our moderator, Michelle,
who'll wrap things up for us.
>> MICHELLE: Thank you, Jane, and thanks for
that great presentation.
We are now going to open up for a few questions
for Jane to answer so if you would like to
ask a question
please do so by typing your question into
the chat box at the bottom left of your screen.
Please note that Jane will not be able to
answer any questions that are specific to
your jurisdiction.
So while we're just waiting for a few questions
to come through,
I would just like to remind everyone that
we do have another webinar coming up on Thursday the
14th November on Domestic and Family Violence and CALD Communities.
So you will be receiving the invitation for
this webinar via email in your inboxes shortly
and we would like to see you register and
come along to our next webinar as well.
We have had a few questions come through about
the slides being available after the webinar
and whether people can have a copy and I have
been notified that the slides will be available
and the 1800RESPECT team will notify you on
how to view these.
So we have had a few questions come through
for you Jane. Out first one comes from Hua.
He'd like to know,
"I have a question regarding sexual assault
being considered in the questions or tools."
>> JANE: Look, I'm not familiar with
every screening tool out there. It's possible
it is in some cases
but given that the evidence says that sexual
assault is an indicator of risk I think it's
reasonable to use that as a guide,
if sexual assault has occurred by an intimate
partner that there is significant risk there,
but as to whether it's in any tools, I couldn't
give you any specifics, just because there
is a huge range of tools out there.
>> MICHELLE: OK great. We do have another
question from Laura. She'd like to know,
"Do you have any advice for workers who
only speak with people over the phone?
Should the family violence assessment be done
differently?"
>> JANE: Look I don't think so. It's the
same process, you're still engaging with
people
and I assume, undertaking some sort of assessment
about their wellbeing and then providing advice
and support.
So I wouldn't see any reason why the questions
would need to be different.
The key is knowing what to do once the
person that you're talking to indicates that they
are experiencing family violence.
So that's the big one for me but the conversation
I think is fine, whether it's over the phone
or face to face.
Having that next step ready, an understanding
about safety planning and risk management
and to be able to connect them straight away
with a, a specific family violence service,
like 1800RESPECT,
is they key there.
>> MICHELLE: Thanks Jane. We do have another
question from Fran. She'd like to know,
"Can we have some hints on how to convince
the women or the woman she is in grave danger?"
>> JANE: I guess, given that we, the bulk
of that presentation was taking you though
what the evidence says,
what the research tells us that indicates
a woman is at high risk is taking her through that.
Letting people know that there's a whole
range of things that we know
lead to really serious and violent outcomes
for women and this is them.
So it's stalking and harassment and obsessive
behaviour and high levels of alcohol use and
whatever they are,
but you know I've just been through them
for you, but I think actually taking women
through that
and again I would strongly recommend that
this is done by a family violence specialist
or in consultation
or with supervision from the family violence
specialist.
But letting women know what the research says
and what we know as professionals about the
risks around family violence
and the factors that contribute to that.
>> MICHELLE: OK great. Thanks Jane. We do
have another question from Terri,
"What would you recommend if someone is
placed at risk?"
>> JANE: I'm assuming we're talking about
someone that Terri's perhaps working with.
Generally, if you identify that risk is present,
safety planning is important. So talking to
the woman or whoever it is
about her immediate safety and how you can
ensure that she's safe, and then, so safety
planning and there's a whole range of things
and you can get any further information about
that on 1800RESPECT website.
So a safety plan is a very important factor
and then a referral to a specialist, a family
violence specialist if you can.
Linking them in.
The workers themselves, you know you can ring
1800RESPECT and get advice from professionals
on the phone as well there.
So obviously the website and the phone line
for 1800RESPECT are available to you.
>> MICHELLE: OK great then. Thanks Jane. We have
just had another comment come through from
Terri, she's just clarified that,
"...placed at risk and wanting no further contact."
>> JANE: From their partner. No further contact
from their partner? Again, it's about safety
planning and risk management. So
we know that separation and not wanting any
further contact is a point at which women can
be at increased risk.
So it's about getting support for that client
from a family violence specialist I would
think.
To ensure that there's safety wrapped around a process
of her moving on or leaving that relationship.
>> MICHELLE: Great. thank you. We have had another
question come from Vivianna. She'd like
to know,
"Do you feel these tools are useful for
culturally and linguistically diverse clients?"
>> JANE: Look I think that they are, but need
to be used in the context of that culture.
So certainly the webinar next month will give
you greater insight as to how you can work
with CALD clients but
I think the risk factors are evidence based
and I don't think they're culturally specific
in any way
so certainly, as long as they're used through
the lens of an understanding of that culture,
I think that's appropriate for you to use
them in that way.
>> MICHELLE: Great, And Rajnish would like to
know,
"What should we include in a safety plan?"
>> JANE: So generally a safety plan includes
things like an emergency contact; who can the person who's escaping violence
have on quick dial on their mobile phone to
get help?
Making sure that women have a bag packed for
example so that they can quickly get what
they need
for themselves and their children if they
have to flee.
Making sure they have a plan for if they need
to get out of the house quickly and they know
where to go and who to call.
If they're going to consider separating
that they've talked to a family violence
professional about planning around that
because we know that that will increase the
risk. So considering an intervention order
and things like that.
But in the here and now I guess it's about
making sure that the woman has access to money
a credit card, support at very short notice.
>> MICHELLE: OK and Libby would like to know,
"Is sexual assault of victims one of the
red flag risk factors list in the Victorian CRAF?"
>> JANE: Yes. So we covered that off. Sexual
assault was... I'm just looking back through
my... Yes, sexual assault is a risk factor.
>> MICHELLE: Great. OK, that's all of the questions
that we have had come through to the chat
box for the moment
so just one last reminder if anyone would
like to ask a question please type that into
the chat box now and Jane can answer that for you.
OK so there doesn't seem to be anymore questions
coming through so thank you Jane for answering
all of those questions
and thank you very much for that fantastic
presentation.
Thank you everyone for attending today's
webinar.
Please stay logged in to take our short online
survey.
At the end of the survey you will be provided
with a link to our discussion forum, where
you can discuss comments.
Please note that case specific information
cannot be posted on the online discussion
and Jane cannot answer any case specific questions.
We thank you in advance for your feedback
and wish you a pleasant afternoon. Thanks, Jane.
>> JANE: Thank you.
