BY Alesha Capone
CHRISTMAS tends to be a time of celebration for many people, but for hundreds of women across the West experiencing domestic violence, this festive season was frightening and brutal.
More than 360 women – from municipalities including Brimbank, Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Melton, Moonee Valley and Wyndham – received assistance from Women’s Health West between 23-30 December last year.
The not-for-profit group, which is based in Footscray, has a 24-hour crisis response team and helpline for women facing family violence.
The Women’s Health West CEO, Dr Robyn Gregory, said staff received 152 crisis referrals from police across the three days they were open between this Christmas and New Year, plus after hours and on weekends.
“Our staff do not have ready access to the statistics from previous years at this stage, but anecdotally they believe this is a significant increase on the previous year,” Dr Gregory said.
“In addition, we had 214 women who were experiencing family violence contact our intake service directly from Wednesday 28 – Friday 30 December between 9am and 5pm.
“In total, this was 366 women in one week.
“The greatest numbers of referrals were from Melton, Brimbank and Wyndham.
“With the increases in populations in Melton and Wyndham as two of the state’s major growth areas, plus the already-large population of Brimbank, it is clear that organisations such as Women’s Health West require an increase in funding to cope with the continued increase in referrals.”
Dr Gregory said the “very high” number of women who requested help with family violence across Christmas was not a new phenomenon, and has been experienced by Women’s Health West in previous years.
“I think Christmas is supposed to be a time when families get together and are meant to be happy, you get that gap between expectations of how things are supposed to be and how things really are, which raises all sorts of tensions,” she said.
“Unfortunately some people play out stress in ways which are unacceptable.”
People experiencing family violence can call Women’s Health West on 9689 9588 during business hours, after hours on 9373 0123 or the Women’s Domestic Violence Crisis Services of Victoria on 1800 015 188.
