Education needed to support nurses and midwives tackling family violence

Comprehensive family violence education and training is needed for nurses and midwives assessing and managing women and children at risk of family violence.

Last month, ANMF (Victorian Branch) made several submissions to the Andrews Government’s public consultations for strengthening systematic responses to family violence and child sexual abuse, including:

• the Child Information Sharing (CIS) Scheme and related Ministerial Guidelines, Regulations and Regulatory Impact Statement
• the Family Violence Information Sharing (FVIS) Scheme
• Regulatory Impact Statement Family Violence Protection (Information Sharing and Risk Management) Amendment Regulations 2018
• the re-developed Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework.
  Recent royal commissions into family violence and institutional responses to child sexual abuse recommended improving information sharing to identify and intervene for those at-risk.

In our submission addressing the re-developed Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework, ANMF stated that:

1. registered nurses and midwives, especially maternal and child health nurses must be provided training
2. the framework clearly identifies the role of professionals and organisations within the framework
3. organisations must ensure their policies and procedures are aligned with the framework prior to its introduction.

The Family Violence Information Sharing (FVIS) Scheme began in February to strengthen information sharing between a limited number of organisations and services that assess and manage family violence risks.

Phase one of the Child Information Sharing (CIS) Scheme will come into effect in September, building upon the FVIS to widen the services involved in supporting child and adult survivors of family violence, including maternal and child health nurses. The FVIS will also be expanded to align with the CIS.

The Branch welcomes the Andrews Government’s proposed ground-breaking reforms for tackling the scourge of family violence and will continue to collaborate regarding these reforms.