'Disrespect' towards victims of family violence creates lives spent in fear

But experts say this should not dissuade a concerted effort from all in the community, not just lead agencies, to bring that about.

"We know that if people have experienced family violence throughout their life that there is a heightened chance they will experience that in a relationship."

That insight from Kelley Latta, who is in charge of sexual assault-related counselling services at Albury Community Health, is one shared right across the social services sector on the Border.

While the idea of generational change might initially appear insurmountable, work is certainly under way to set that in train in the community.

Ms Latta pointed to work being done by Wodonga Primary School around healthy relationships.

"We just make the assumption that everyone knows what one looks like and has experienced one," she said.

"But it's actually not the case for a lot of people, so actively teaching about how you treat people and what a healthy relationship is really is important because we want to see them between all genders and all ages."

More formalised early intervention remained a key challenge for agencies on both sides of the border, though more so in Albury with its fragmented system.

There definitely are pockets where community safety is not as high and normally that's where we find our most vulnerable people. Not only do they not feel safe within their relationship, their day-to-day living and where they are actually located is not safe

Kelley Latta, Albury Community Health

At Gateway Health in Wodonga, early intervention has already had success in men's behavioural change, through case management and a group program.

"The group program is a long process really and not everybody completes it. With our case managers we were really lucky to get some really good people and they're really good at engagement," counselling and support program manager Greg Calder said.

"Of course long-term will be the test as we've only had the case management in place for just over 12 months. But the engagement rate is far, far higher than it was before."

That test of success can be demonstrated in a range of ways. It could be through a client's engagement, in attending court or in whatever else they must complete, such as alcohol and drug counselling and anger management.

Perpetrators' rate of violence had dropped "right away" and that was backed by anecdotal evidence from the victim, Mr Calder said.

Gateway, he said, "jumped the gun a bit" in becoming the first in Victoria to engage in case management for men, which had been a recommendation from the Royal Commission into Family Violence.

"Other areas in the state are still struggling to employ appropriate case managers, so it's not uniform. I think we've been pretty lucky here."

Mr Calder said that of the 30 referrals each week to the behavioural change program, about two-thirds were new.

"Hopefully that's awareness and campaigns influencing people to report and it's not just that there's an explosion of increased violence in the community."

But while there had been a lot of effort and a lot of focus on the crisis "pointy end of the business, and rightly so", there remains the recurring issue of very early intervention strategies.

Gateway is keen to see far more work go into primary schools, noting the Education Department's work in trying to identify affected children. Clues were those kids who appeared anxious, or with learning difficulties, as the impact of violence was know to manifest itself in many ways.

One recent case involved a nine-year-old displaying behaviours that were "all very adult already" and in line with those of his father. That was first detected by one of Gateway's children's counsellors, which led to discussions with the school.

"We had an example last year where it was actually the (Wodonga district) primary school that picked things up first," Mr Calder said.

"But it was really identified because these kids, three kids in the one family, moved schools about eight times in four years.

"What the mother was trying to do was keep one step ahead of the perpetrator, and it wasn't until they landed in (the Wodonga area) with the few extra community supports that it stabilised and the school noticed the children's behaviour."

One key point Mr Calder made was that perpetrators' bad behaviours "don't respect the border".

"The signs are that if it becomes a federal Labor government they're going to do a lot of things modeled on what Victoria's already done, but especially around family violence."

Until then though, the differences between NSW and Victoria were stark and the prospect of national laws to assist with a considerably more targeted and streamlined approach remained anchored in hope.

On the Border, part of the approach has been to expand on the informal network of information sharing between agencies.

That's been through the Albury-Wodonga Family and Domestic Violence Committee. It was described by chair and Albury deputy mayor Amanda Cohn as a "really organic, grassroots initiative" that played an extremely important role "for us to know what other providers are doing to skill share, to organise events and to raise awareness in the community".

"The membership is quite enormous and we've got representatives of really every relevant stakeholder group in Albury-Wodonga. And it's cross-border, which is really fantastic," she said.

"It's not a government thing, it was never funded with a grant, it was never anyone's obligation to do this. The local stakeholders just recognised a need from talking to each other."

What was already blindingly obvious to the group was the fragmentation of service provision, the lack of a specialist service in Albury and the "dramatically underfunded" sub-acute services on the border. By sub-acute, that meant the preventative work "that's the real meat of what needs to be done".

Cr Cohn said that was to give women the tools to recognise they might be in a controlling relationship and in need of counselling "on how to advocate for herself within her family".

"A lot of the funding for domestic violence-related services is quite silent," she said.

Cr Cohn said the funding shortfall in sub-acute services - as opposed to crisis support dealing with, for example, police getting involved or significant injuries requiring hospitalisation - was "really short-sighted".

"Because services aren't available and things escalate to crisis point, it becomes more expensive to intervene at a stage where people are needing crisis support than to provide that broad support in the community in the early stages of what's happening with them," she said.

"That's where we could really intervene cheaply to have the biggest benefit for them."

Cr Cohn said the Royal Commission obviously meant progress in Victoria; not perfect, but at least allowing for the coming on-line of funding for a co-ordination of care.

But she said the the lack of domestic violence-related funding in NSW meant Albury victims were up against a system of "really fragmented care" with "really complex referral pathways".

"We haven't got a one-stop shop for someone who is experiencing violence to first present to. And again, the local providers all know each other and do an outstanding job of referring to each other. But it's not a very efficient way of providing care and it's not a specialised service.

"And at the end of the day, family and domestic violence is such a widespread problem in our community and across the whole of Australia that it really needs specialist funding and specialist services to address this issue."

But even seeking help could be an extraordinarily difficult step to take. It might be fear of a perceived stigma about the violence, the victim not knowing of what exactly constituted violence or not possessing the skills - or being trapped by a partner's control - to break through the isolation.

While victims and perpetrators come from all strands of society, Ms Latta said safety and the impact of poverty could not be under-estimated.

"There definitely are pockets where community safety is not as high and normally that's where we find our most vulnerable people. There are obvious examples in Albury of that," she said.

"You think about what it's like for those people. Not only do they not feel safe within their relationship, their day-to-day living and where they are actually located is not safe."

​NEED HELP?

• Emergency: 000
• DV Hotline: 1800 656 463
• Safe Steps: 1800 015 188
• Betty's Place Women's Refuge: 02 6058 6200 or 1900 885 355
• DV counselling: 1800 737 732
• Kids' Helpine: 1800 789 978
• MensLine: 1300 789 978

It meant the "flight, fright and freeze" circuitry in their brain changed the essential make-up of how they then figured-out such complex challenges.

"I am one of those people who is really fortunate that I get to choose where I live, and if I don't like where I live I can change it really easily," she said.

"It's all those things that we take for granted."

But Ms Latta said that equally, people mired in such disadvantage also had resources and skills that she would never have, to simply sleep and survive in such an environment or even a life on the streets.

"These people are hugely resilient and resourceful and live in really difficult circumstances and we just need the service system to be able to make sure they're supported."

It meant working out how change could be produced for the vulnerable.

"It's going to be producing political change or funding change when they don't have a choice in where they live or don't know where their next meal is coming from."

STOP THE VIOLENCE - THE SERIES

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