FAMILY violence reports to Maribyrnong police have again risen, with 11 per cent more offences recorded last year than in the previous year.
Women’s Health West chief Robyn Gregory said an 11 per cent rise, from 141 to 156 reports to local police, was just the tip of the iceberg for the issue in the western suburbs, with many incidents still failing to be reported to police.
Domestic violence is the biggest cause of poor health in Maribyrnong women, accounting for almost 10 per cent of the health burden. Footscray-based WHW has had a 40 per cent increase in its family violence-related workload in the past 12 months.
Dr Gregory said higher reporting rates reflected a greater willingness by women to speak out. She said times of economic and other stress tended to lead to higher rates of violence.
“We have seen as many clients in the past seven months as we dealt with in the entire year before,” she said.
“There are a number of family violence orders being breached, which is a bad thing, but the good thing is that it’s coming to the attention of police and women are being referred to our service.”
Dr Gregory noted that many newly arrived communities might not have enough trust in police to report violence directly.
She said WHW also received a number of referrals from GPs and other health professionals.
Dr Gregory called for a boost in spending to target family violence prevention.
—Benjamin Millar
