Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer and chair of the Monash Health Family Violence Taskforce, Clinical Associate Professor Katrina Nankervis.
Five years on from Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence, we reflect on the work our Family Violence teams and Family Violence Taskforce have achieved so far. In a health service as large as ours, the impact of family violence is significant for patients, employees and our wider community.
Monash University’s Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre (MGFVPC) recently ran an event to mark the milestone. Dr Christine Nixon APM opened the event and spoke of her exposure to Family Violence within the NSW Police Force and later in her role as Police Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police and the changes she saw in her over 40 years policing. A panel discussion then followed this with key sector and Government leaders and The Closing Address was delivered by the Honourable Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Prevention of Family Violence.
“Five years ago we took a bright light to our darkest secret, our leading law and order issue and a leading contributor to death, disability and illness for women under 45. We committed to change. On the back of the Royal Commision into Family Violence we committed to the biggest social reform the state had ever seen. We committed to implementing every single one of the commissions 227 recommendations and began the task of building a new family violence system.”
“While a lot of work has been achieved, we know there is still a lot of work to do. This is not about ticking off Royal commission recommendations. That alone does not build the system we know we need.”
“Five years on from the Royal Commission I would like to say thank you to the thousands of Victorians who work tirelessly to progress this reform. Every day your work means we can meaningfully improve the lives of adults, children and young people across our state. To our essential frontline workforce thank you. This work isn’t easy and it’s a long way from finished but we are committed to the task. Together we can achieve a Victoria free from violence” said the Honourable Gabrielle Williams in her closing address. You can watch the full event here.
At Monash Health we remain committed to help prevent, identify and respond to family violence. Since 2017 over 6,000 of our employees and managers have completed family violence training, the team continues to offer oversight, education and awareness.
But we know our work is not done, and now is a time to focus our attention on the Information Sharing Scheme legislation coming into effect on Monday 19 April. This legislation is a key milestone in the implementation of the recommendations handed down by the Royal Commission. The legislation will help break down silos and barriers to sharing information across organisations, and increase the safety of victim survivors and our wider community.
The two schemes, Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme (FVISS) and Child Information Sharing Scheme (CISS) are designed to keep victim survivors safe and hold perpetrators to account.
Under this new legislation, employees may be asked to share information with prescribed external organisations .
This is a significant change, and I encourage anyone in a patient-facing role, managers and those outlined here to take some time and attend a briefing to understand how this will impact you, the way you work and the legal requirements.
Briefing sessions are running on Thursday 15 April and Tuesday 20 April, or you can contact the Stengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence (SHFRV) team via familyviolenceeducation@monashhealth.org to organise a briefing for your team. It is also recommended that you complete the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing and Department of Health’s e-learning module that provides a thorough overview of the legislation.
Thank you
Katrina Nankervis
