Domestic and family violence (LGBTIQ+ and CALD) e-learning modules

NWMPHN’s Health Needs Assessment 2022-25 identified domestic and family violence as an issue increasingly impacting children and families in the catchment.

To target this, the Primary Health Care Improvement team commissioned the University of Melbourne’s Safer Families Centre to deliver the Primary Care Pathways to Safety Readiness Program for up to 30 general practices.

The program offers online training, e-learning modules and webinars to primary care providers to effectively respond, refer and record instances of domestic and family violence. The suite of CPD accredited e-learning modules are titled:

• Identifying and Responding to Domestic and Family Violence
• Identifying People who have used Domestic and Family Violence
• Identifying and Responding to Child Abuse and Neglect
• Providing Trauma and Violence Informed Care in Primary Care
• Addressing Family Violence: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
• Six Steps to Support you to Assess and Respond to Elder Abuse
• Supporting Primary Care to Implement Family Violence Information Sharing

Following the success of the Pathways to Safety Readiness Program, the University of Melbourne and NWMPHN identified gaps in the current suite of e-learning modules for identifying and responding to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and LGBTIQ+ patients experiencing domestic and family violence.

To address these, NWMPHN’s Children and Families team commissioned the University of Melbourne to develop two new modules.

While each module has its own set of learning outcomes, the domestic and family violence e-learning modules project aimed to:

• strengthen the skills and confidence of health practitioners, GPs and other primary care providers in identifying and responding to family and intimate partner violence for LGBTIQ+ and CALD people
• create a resource that provides greater understanding of how societal, systemic, cultural, and individual drivers can intersect to contribute to CALD and LGBTIQ+ experiences of family and domestic violence
• increase knowledge of ways to identify, assess and refer patients affected by domestic violence to safe and appropriate first-line response pathways.