Domestic Violence Services in NSW

Abstract

The government and healthcare facilities have established programs to offer domestic violence services and help mitigate the NWS region's physical, emotional, sexual, or psychological abuse. The study will be crucial to social workers, the criminal justice system, and domestic violence service providers as it creates a holistic perspective of the rate of domestic violence among the CALD group in the Nepean and blue mountain region. The literature review indicates that although there are various domestic violence services, CALD members rarely seek the services, and this is due to fear of discrimination, stereotyping, and stigma. However, there are programs established to enhance the well-being of the aboriginals in NSW in case of domestic violence, such as the Women's Domestic Violence Court Assistance Scheme (WDVCAS) and Women's Health NSW organization. The study should be completed within two months.

Introduction

Millions of people die or suffer from domestic violence each year. However, women are more vulnerable to domestic violence than men. Domestic violence entails verbal abuse, sexual assault, financial deprivation, physical violence, intimidation, or social isolation. Research indicates that 1 in 4 women in Australia from age 15 experience sexual or physical abuse by an intimate partner (Domestic, family & sexual violence statistics - DVNSW - domestic violence NSW 2022). Intimate partner murders are approximately one each week, and an estimated ten women get hospitalized due to injuries resulting from domestic violence (Domestic, family & sexual violence statistics - DVNSW - domestic violence NSW 2022). Consequently, research indicates that approximately 40 000 individuals experience physical violence by the age of fifteen in New South Wales(NSW) in Australia (Freeman, 2022). However, Penrith LGA has registered many domestic violence cases in the region (Freedman, 2018). However, the government and healthcare facilities have established programs to offer domestic violence services and help mitigate the NWS region's physical, emotional, sexual, or psychological abuse.

Theoretical background

The Bureau of Crimes Statistics and Research (BCSR) indicates that the Western Sydney region in NSW is highly affected by domestic violence. Despite many reported domestic violence cases, research indicates that the unreported cases are still numerous as most families are victims (Freedman, 2018). The Napean Blue Mountains (NBM) region has the highest number of aboriginal people who experience poor health services, access to transportation, and isolation. Approximately 24% of the NBM individuals were born overseas, and 11.9% did not speak English (Morris, 2019). There is a high rate of socioeconomic disparity in the region, which contributes to increased rates of domestic violence. The Penrith LGA region presented the highest number of domestic violence victims compared to the NSW region (Spangaro, 2017). However, indigenous Australians are more vulnerable to experiencing direct and indirect impacts of domestic violence. The study indicates that the aboriginals' chances of being hospitalized and dying are more due to the impact of domestic abuse. Thus, numerous domestic violence cases exist among minority groups in NSW.

However, domestic violence became worse in Australia during the pandemic period. Research indicates that during this period, the cases surpassed the capacity of the support services in the NSW region (Kennedy, 2020). There were many cases of sexual assaults, strangulation, severe head injuries, and threats of murder due to restrictions (lockdown)put in to contain the virus, financial stress, and lack of employment. For instance, 10% of women experienced domestic violence, while 50% of women who had previous experiences stated that the abuse was more frequent and severe during the coronavirus (Kennedy, 2020). Cases of referrals to the Illawarra Women's health center had surged to 189% from 55% (Kennedy, 2020). In addition, the number of victims waiting for counseling services also spiked. Therefore, the federal government should establishmore domestic violence support services and offer the necessary resources to the available service centers.

Furthermore, people in Australia's New South Wale region use different methods to seek help in domestic violence cases. Some people could use informal means, such as talking to colleagues, friends, family, or religious leaders, or formal means, such as reporting to social workers, police, domestic violence agencies, counselors, or doctors (Ghafournia & Easteal, 2019). Some of the factors that determine the most appropriate method used to seek help include the level of income, race, and fender, as Australia is a multicultural country with 49% of citizens either being immigrants or having parents born overseas (Ghafournia & Easteal, 2019). The culturally and linguistically diverse(CALD) minority group is growing rapidly. However, despite the increasing number of immigrants and multiculturalism in New South Wales, there are still discrimination cases in public areas. Research indicates that CALD women are most vulnerable to domestic violence but rarely seek formal domestic violence services due to fear of being stereotyped, politically harassed, or a backlash (Prentice et al., 2017). Other barriers to seeking formal services for domestic violence include discrimination, racism, social isolation, lack of knowledge, and language. Therefore, most domestic violence victims become resilient to violence as they do not get enough help from informal services, which escalates abuse (Prentice et al., 2017). However, racism, discrimination, and stereotyping among the domestic violence service providers deter the indigenous group in the NSW region from seeking formal help, which escalates the cases of abuse.

In addition, other barriers to accessing domestic violence services are cost, stereotyping, and language barriers. Research indicates that 8% of the NBM residents are delayed in seeking medical specialists, psychiatry, and other services due to the cost, with most people residing in the Penrith, St. Marys, and Lithgow-Mudgee (Herbert & Bromfield, 2020). Also, CALD people could have different perspectives regarding domestic violence. Although the major issue in reporting such cases is the language barrier, stigma and shame play a critical role in reporting. A victim could fear being accused of bringing shame to the community and face stigmatization, resolving to become resilient to domestic violence (Vaughan et al., 2019). Thus, although there are various services to deal with domestic violence cases, women in the CALD group are not likely to seek the services, mainly due to the language barrier and stigmatization. However, there are programs to train the clinical health staff in dealing with domestic violence cases (Ghafournia & Healey, 2022). Identifying victims of sexual assault and domestic violence help clinicians offer the most appropriate care and connect them to support services such as therapy to protect them and offer prevention guidance to avoid future cases of abuse. For instance, most domestic violence victims tend to present symptoms of suicidal ideation, personality disorder, anorexia, anxiety, and depression (Trankle & Reath, 2019). However, domestic violence programs are limited in cities such as the Nepean limiting the aboriginals' access to such services. However, there are accommodation and support services for women at risk of homelessness as they escape domestic violence. Most domestic violence services focus on the CALD group and aboriginal women from diverse cultural groups in NSW (Ogunsiji & Clisdell, 2017). Therefore, various services are established to support victims of Domestic violence in the NSW and the blue mountain region. However, most victims fail to seek the services due to financial and language barriers and fear of discrimination and stereotyping.

Project strategies

The idea to research domestic violence services and the procedure for accessing them originated from my experience during my placement in the CALD community. I strived to find the most appropriate services for families at risk of domestic violence. However, after filling out a referral form and submitting it to the service provider, I could later be informed that I did not use the right procedure, the family did not meet the criteria, or the family was not within the area of services. This frustrated me, and I decided to establish a table illustrating the domestic violence services within the local areas (Nepean and Blue Mountain). The methods for collecting data involved observation, questionnaires, and interviewing the caseworkers. I also used a literature review to establish the prevalence of domestic violence in the NSW and Blue mountain region and the services used to establish the research problem.

Results

Since I was familiar with the casework process, I distributed the resources among the caseworkers in response to the referals across Blue Mountain and the Nepean regions. This involved consideration of the social system if the society to establish how certain beliefs and values affect the residents ability to access domestic violence services . The move led to positive outcomes when client's needed the domestic violence services and there was reduced workload in the  caseworkers as the families had enough details and link with  the service providers. However,  I was not able to capture all of the services in the area and that I hope it will become a living document that can be updated 

 Discussion

The Women's Domestic Violence Court Assistance Scheme (WDVCAS) was established in New South Wales(NSW) to offer support and legal specialist services to victims of domestic violence. The WDVCAS offers safety plans where many women access government funding, legal protection, and security for the victims (Coumarelos et al., 2017). The service also provides the clients with crucial information regarding court proceedings, offers the needed support and resources during the court processes, and follow-up services to help clients comprehend each stage of the court process, the outcomes, planning, and legal actions for continued abuse (Coumarelos et al., 2017).   Also, WDVCAS offers referral services to counseling to enhance their mental health and offer safe accommodation. In addition, WDVCAS enhances cultural diversity by employing aboriginal workers to prevent language barriers and enhance trust (Coumarelos et al., 2017). However, the WDVCAS is financed by the government to enhance protection for women in need of protection concerning domestic violence. Hence, WDVCAS focus on ensuring that the NSW residents are free from violence by recognizing the vulnerability of children and women, and it helps in restoring women's divinity and safety (Coumarelos et al., 2017). Thus, the WDVCAS plays a critical role in offering services to victims of domestic violence in NSW to comprehend the court processes and offer referral and accommodation services to enhance the victim's well-being.

Another domestic violence service body is the Women's Health NSW, which stays proactive in advocating for improving women's health outcomes by advocating for coordination in planning, consultation, services, staffing, and cooperation among nongovernmental and governmental agencies. The Women's Health Center was established to help more vulnerable women and victims of domestic violence (Mengesha et al., 2017). In addition, women in the NSW region are more disadvantaged in terms of power, education, and poverty and are hence likely to be affected healthwise. Furthermore, there are still cases of gender inequality, and women get discriminated against, assaulted sexually, or experienced domestic violence. The Women's Health NSW body members focus on prevention, wellness, early intervention care, immediate physical, mental, emotional, and chronic illness care, sexual health, reproductive health, and prevention of violence against women (Mengesha et al., 2017). The body offers counseling services to women to improve their health. The centers offer preventive care, community training, and enlightenment about domestic violence and women empowerment (Mengesha et al., 2017). They educate women and equip them with resources and skills to take responsibility and practice healthy living practices. In addition, the centers help women acknowledge aspects of mental, emotional, and physical well-being to seek care early (Mengesha et al., 2017).The implications for providing caseworkers assisting families with child protection concerns with a resource identifying services to link families with include a quicker process of referals, reduction in the length of involvement with a victim and more accurate services. Therefore, the body was mainly established to provide a holistic approach to women's health by combining clinical and counseling services, health promotion, training, and education to enhance women's well-being.

Conclusion

Domestic violence is prevalent among the CALD group in Nepean and the Blue Mountain region in Australia. However, research indicates that most of the victims of domestic violence in the region do not seek formal assistance due to illiteracy, fear of being discriminated against, or lack of awareness of the right criteria to access the services. However, there are programs established to enhance the well-being of the aboriginals in NSW in case of domestic violence, such as the Women's Domestic Violence Court Assistance Scheme (WDVCAS) and Women's Health NSW organization. The Women's Domestic Violence Court Assistance Scheme (WDVCAS) was established in New South Wales(NSW) to offer support and legal specialist services to victims of domestic violence. Women's Health NSW stays proactive in advocating for improving women's health outcomes by coordinating planning, consultation, services, staffing, and cooperation among nongovernmental and governmental agencies.

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