Ms Juliana Martins Pereira1, Mrs Rebecca Jones1
1East Metropolitan Health Services, Perth, Australia
Biography:
Juliana is a social work manager at Royal Perth Bentley Group (RPBG), with over six years of clinical experience in inpatient settings, including Emergency Department and Mental Health, where FDV presentations are prevalent. As lead of the EMHS FDV Project, she led a pioneering reform in WA to enhance health services for FDV victims through collaboration. Rebecca is a social worker with 17 years of practice in health settings in Australia and overseas, including clinical experience supporting victims of FDV. As Acting Head of Department for Social Work at RPBG, she is a key stakeholder in the EMHS FDV Project.
Abstract:
This presentation highlights the achievements of an initiative aimed at developing a collaborative model of care to enhance health service responses to patients affected by Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) in Western Australia. In response to the alarming statistics of FDV in Australia—where 1 in 4 non-Indigenous women and 3 in 5 Aboriginal women aged 15 and above are affected (ABS, 2021-22)—and recognizing the crucial role of health professionals in identifying and supporting victim-survivors, the East Metropolitan Health Service (EMHS) commissioned the EMHS FDV Project: Our Part in Creating Paths to Safety (“the Project”). The Project sought to answer the question: “Do we (EMHS) have the capacity and capability to effectively play our part in creating paths to safety for victim-survivors of FDV?”
Through the Project, 29 recommended strategies were proposed as a roadmap to address key service gaps and promote a whole-of-organization approach to best support this crucial health need. The Project led to the creation of an FDV Senior Project Officer position to oversee the implementation of the FDV roadmap in EMHS, embedding a shared care framework across allied health, medical, nursing, and administrative staff. The collaborative framework, developed with input from diverse stakeholders, was piloted in Emergency Departments, Mental Health, and Maternity settings. This approach resulted in significant levels of staff engagement across disciplines, fostering a culture of collaboration, enhancing the response to FDV in health settings, and supporting workforce capacity to meet the health needs of victim-survivors.