By LAURA WAKELY
A FAMILY violence response program that has assisted up to 300 women a month since July last year is in serious need of funding.
The Women’s Health West (WHW) 24-hour crisis support program provides an immediate face-to-face response to women and their children who have experienced family violence.
Originally a 9 to 5 program, with an on-call service in the evenings, massive demand has seen WHW expand the program to a 24-hour, seven day a week service.
Figures from Victoria Police show there were 1589 reported family violence incidences between July 2010 and June 2011 across the West, compared with 1338 recorded in the previous year.
During that time, the WHW support service saw a massive 68 per cent increase in referrals from Victoria Police alone, with 2362 between June 2010 and July 2011.
That figure doesn’t take into account the referrals from hospitals, counsellors, councils and other women’s health services.
Such is the demand for immediate crisis support that WHW have had to divert funding from its long-term family violence case management programs to deal with the increase in crisis referrals.
WHW CEO Robyn Gregory said she was pleased police were acting on family violence and more women felt comfortable reporting the crime.
But she’s disappointed that support services like WHW haven’t received additional funds to cope with the increase.
She said the crisis program cost around $270,000 annually in staff.
“Obviously as the numbers of women that ring get higher and higher, you can’t just say somebody will ring you back,” Dr Gregory said.
“When women or children are in crisis they can’t wait days or weeks.
“How do you make a decision about who is in the most crisis? Do you want our reception staff to have to say this woman sounds more distressed or the police to say ‘oh this bruise is bigger than this one?’”
She said Community Services and Women’s Affairs Minister Mary Wooldridge had said there would be no additional funding for preventing family violence in tonight’s State Budget.
Dr Gregory said the West had “entrenched disadvantage” in areas such as Sunshine and Braybrook, high population growth, unemployment and isolation that was leading to an increased stress on families and would “breed” family violence.
“When you withdraw services around family violence, because it’s so hidden… it’s a covered up, quite silent crime, they (victims) simply cop it,” Dr Gregory said.
