Fathering in a context of family violence

Support services for families harmed by domestic violence are critical, but leading experts say Australia still needs a baseline understanding of what has to be done across the board.

Between 2013 and 2014, family violence represented 42 per cent of all crimes against the person in Victoria, and is still the leading contributor to death, disability, and ill health in Australian women aged 15 to 44.

At a recent workshop on fathering and family violence held at the University of Melbourne those working in health, social work, and law came together to discuss the main concerns around programs to protect children and rehabilitate men.

Speakers looked at the importance of supervised visitation centres in healing the damage to children from violence, along with teaching fathers positive parenting. But many still see grey areas in the system.

The Chief Executive of Domestic Violence Victoria, Fiona McCormack, believes a system needs to be put in place that is understood by a range of sectors working in domestic violence.

“Supervised access is a fantastic opportunity to be engaging with men and their children. But in Victoria, we don’t have anything informing our practice,” she says.

“The gap is that we don’t have any principles. We need to set up a policy framework, otherwise we’re just grappling in the dark. We think we’re getting somewhere and we’re not.”

In 2013 and 2014, there were 143,000 children nationally needing child protection services.
The Chief Executive of Berry Street, Sandie de Wolf, understands the importance of knowing what works and what doesn’t.

Berry Street operates three Children’s Contact Services that provide a safe place for children to see their parents in a non-threatening and supervised environment, but there is currently a 10-month waitlist at each centre.

“We are only one agency in one state,” she says, “and you only need to glance at recent statistics to know that more and more children across Australia are unable to live safely in their homes.”

“This puts a lot of pressure on agencies like Berry Street which provide safe and supportive out-of-home care placements for traumatised and vulnerable children,” Ms De Wolf says.

In the last 12 weeks in the northern suburbs, Berry Street’s family violence team received over 3,000 referrals from the police, recording some of their highest ever monthly referrals.

Senior Clinician at Berry Street’s Infant, Child and Parent Program, Emma Toone, believes that if family violence workers in health, social work, and law had a uniform understanding of the crisis, it would make their job a lot easier.

“I’m always struck by how difficult it is. The systems seem to be as fragmented as the families. How do we bring these lenses together?” she asks.

Professor Daniel Saunders, from the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan, was among the speakers at the fathering and family violence workshop.

After establishing one of the first intervention programs for male perpetrators of family violence, he also helped establish a number of crisis programs for women in the 1970s.

Mr Saunders says support services need to make sure they’re focusing on the parents as well, because if they aren’t protecting the mother and father, the child won’t be protected either.

“The reality is that most men do have some contact [with their family]. But we need to say ‘that is not about you seeing your child, this is about your child’s safety, and the safety of his or her mother’,” Mr Saunders says.

“Some fathers shouldn’t see their children, and we need them to understand why. We have a lot of discussions at supervised access about making sure no-one’s being compelled to visit a parent they don’t want to.”

He also believes a policy change is in order to help support services protect children experiencing family violence.

“In Australia, the default is to have guardianship shared by both parents. We need to change the policy and say, ‘no, we’re going to have the non-abusive parent make all the legal decisions for the child.’”

In May, the Victorian Government proposed a family violence index, which will help those working in the field understand what is working and where more resources are needed.

Ms Wolf says: “We need to stop family violence in its tracks, and knowing what works is an important first step in preventing family violence as well as helping women and children recover from the devastating impact.”

Twitter: @MatthewRWade
www.caj.unimelb.edu.au
www. socialwork.unimelb.edu.au/