By ALESHA CAPONE
MORE than 1100 Wyndham residents sought help from a family violence support service across the last 12 months – more than any other area in the West.
During the past financial year more than a fifth of Women’s Health West (WHW) clients were from the Wyndham municipality.
Women’s Health West is based in Footscray and services the council areas of Brimbank, Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Melbourne, Melton, Moonee Valley and Wyndham.
Health promotion worker Ellen Kleimaker said out of the seven municipalities Wyndham recorded the highest rate of calls and police referrals during the past financial year.
“(The) WHW intake service had 1117 – out of 4896 – contacts with women in the Wyndham LGA,” she said.
Ms Kleimaker said factors which contributed to domestic violence included isolation, poverty and newly-arrived communities experiencing economic marginalisation.
“The western region, of which Wyndham is a part, scores highest on the Australian Bureau of Statistics Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage,” she said.
“Women’s Health West focuses on violence against women because women are three times more likely to be injured by their intimate partner than men and because the leading contributor to death, disability and
illness in Victorian women aged 15 to 44 is intimate partner violence.”
Ms Kleimaker said family violence could include physical, emotional, financial and psychological abuse and threats against a woman, children, other relatives or pets.
Sergeant Jacob Bugeja from the Wyndham Family Violence Unit said domestic violence was most often reported by women.
But he said Wyndham was also experiencing a rise in other types of family violence being perpetrated.
“We still get a fair bit where the female is the aggressor and the man is the victim,” he said.
“Children are being the aggressor towards their parents as well, we are getting a huge influx of that at the moment.
“We are getting a lot more of those 15 and 16-year-olds who are rebelling against their parents and it turns into a physical altercation.”
Anyone in immediate danger of family violence should contact police on 000.
Women needing advice can contact WHW during business hours on 9689 9588 or Domestic Violence Victoria on 1800 015 188.
