Community of Practice: Family Violence (north and central regions)

There is something wrong and I can help: Learning to recognise and respond to patients who use intimate partner violence

Join us for the 2022 Community of Practice: Family Violence, which brings together professionals from general practice, mental health and drug and alcohol services, hospitals and the family violence sector. 

This year’s sessions aim to support general practice to identify and manage people who use intimate partner violence as well as helping them make better choices.  

This session will include: 

• education to identify and manage people using intimate partner violence, facilitated by Matt Addison, from the University of Melbourne
• an expert panel case discussion and Q&A, featuring panelists from No to Violence, Odyssey House Victoria, The Royal Children's Hospital, MAPS, Berry Street and North Western Mental Health
• facilitated networking with local general practices, hospitals, mental health, behaviour change programs, drug and alcohol and family and domestic violence services. 

Every year, police respond to 75,000 cases of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) across Victoria. Prevalence studies, however, indicate that this number is just the tip of the iceberg, and hundreds of incidents of IPV are occurring across our communities each day undetected. Whether you recognise it or not, every day in your practice you are engaging with patients using or at risk of using IPV. IPV is a serious public health and social issue that every sector across our communities has a role in stopping. Many studies indicate that GPs are the first professionals that people experiencing and using IPV disclose to. Because of the often-close relationships between doctors and patients, GPs are in a unique position to engage with patients using IPV and to support them to seek help to change their behaviour.  

To learn more about the role of primary care professionals and how to respond to family violence, visit the family violence for primary care page. 

About the facilitator 

Matt Addison, Research Officer. University of Melbourne 

Department of General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences 

Matt Addison has extensive practice, policy, and research experience working with people who have used domestic and family violence. For the last 10 years, Matt has worked as a counsellor, supervisor and researcher in the field of domestic and family violence. Matt is passionate about strength-based and relational approaches to supporting people to change their harmful behaviours.

Matt has worked as a counsellor and supervisor at Men’s Referral Service, which is a multi-state counselling service for men who have used violence in their relationships. Additionally, as a policy professional, Matt has been involved in developing key pieces of Victorian Government policy and practice concerning perpetrators of family violence. These include the development of the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management framework practice guidance, and the redevelopment of the Perpetrator Outcomes framework. 

Matt joined the University of Melbourne in 2020 as a research officer. Matt’s research interests include men and masculinities, mental illness and domestic and family violence, program evaluation, and help-seeking among boys and men.

Learning outcomes:

In this module you will learn:  

• Your role and responsibilities in identifying and responding to patients using intimate partner violence (IPV)  
• The common presentations of patients using IPV  
• Principles of safe engagement with patients using IPV  
• Referral pathways for patients using IPV. 

For more information 

Download the flyer

Read about last year’s sessions on our website 

Is this the right session for me? 

There will be 2 online sessions, for participants in north and central, and west of the region. While you are welcome to attend any of the events, we would encourage you to attend the one most relevant to the geographic area of your work to optimise your learning and networking outcomes. This session is designed for the northern and central area of the NWMPHN catchment, covering Darebin, Hume, Macedon Ranges, Melbourne, Moonee Valley, Moreland and Yarra. Register for the event for the western area (Brimbank, Hobson's Bay, Maribyrnong, Melton, Moorabool and Wyndham) on 17 May 2022.

Additional information

What happened last year? 

Feedback from last year’s sessions showed that there is a need for comprehensive training for primary care professionals to feel confident to identify and manage perpetrators in the family.  The first series of events held in 2021 was attended by 47 health professionals from a variety of disciplines, and 15 presenters/facilitators from range of health and sector organisations, as well as people with lived experience. 

Read more about the first sessions on our website. 

Last year's expert panel included:  

• Zanetta Hartley, Specialist Family Violence Advisor at North Western Mental Health  
• Patrick Birtles, Senior AOD Outreach Clinician at Odyssey House 
• Joanne Doherty, Specialist Practitioner at Elizabeth Morgan House Aboriginal Women’s Service 
• Assunta Morrone, Project Lead, Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence Sunshine, Footscray and Williamstown Hospitals 
• Dani Gold, Specialist Family Violence Advisor, Mental Health & Senior Social Worker, RCH Family Violence Initiative at Royal Children’s Hospital 
• Marianne Crowe, Registered Nurse and Project Lead, Safe Communities and Equitable Health, Strengthening Hospitals’ Response to Family Violence (SHRFV) at St Vincent’s Hospital 
• Natalie Wallace, Clinical Practitioner at Caring Dads Anglicare Victoria 
• Mary Karambilas, Capability Building Co-Ordinator at InTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence 
• Denise McAloon, Services Team Leader at No to Violence (NTV) and Men’s Referral Service 
• Narelle Trewin, Specialist Practitioner at Good Shepherd Crisis Service  
• Kaye Frankcom, Clinical and Counselling Psychologist at Frankcom Consulting