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How to stop them needing to come back? Reducing repeat use of refuges

How to stop them needing to come back? Reducing repeat use of refuges. Dr Angela Spinney. How to stop them needing to come back?. Early Intervention Strategies to Reduce the Need for Women and Children to Make Repeated Use of Refuge and Other Crisis Accommodation

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How to stop them needing to come back? Reducing repeat use of refuges

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  1. How to stop them needing to come back? Reducing repeat use of refuges Dr Angela Spinney

  2. How to stop them needing to come back? • Early Intervention Strategies to Reduce the Need for Women and Children to Make Repeated Use of Refuge and Other Crisis Accommodation • Funded by FaHCSIA under the National Homelessness Research Partnership • Project aimed to bring forward knowledge about the reasons for the decisions women make whether to leave the family home for a refuge, whether to return to the perpetrator, and whether to leave again

  3. Research Questions (1) • Why is it that women and children often leave home and return several times before an abusive situation of domestic and family violence ends? • Have early intervention schemes been successful in enabling women and children to reduce their multiple experiences of violence and of homelessness?

  4. Research Questions (2) • What best practice risk assessment processes and service standards are needed in Safe at Home/SHLV models are to be implemented more widely? • Do these findings have other implications for policy and practice?

  5. Research Methodology • Critical review of the relevant literature • Primary research in the case-study areas – England and three Australian States, Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria • Workshops in Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, Adelaide and Brisbane

  6. Why do women stay with, or return to, the perpetrator? (1) • Many, perhaps half, of women return to the perpetrator • Leaving can be a “process rather than an event” • Variety of social, demographic, economic, and emotional reasons - both structural and personal

  7. Why do women stay with, or return to, the perpetrator? (2) Whether to leave any relationship is a complex and difficult situation; • Fear of greater violence • Poverty • Not enough, or the wrong type, of support • Concerns about making herself and the children homeless

  8. Why do women stay with, or return to, the perpetrator? (3) • Gains from leaving are intangible – losses are tangible and immediate • Children lose so much and it can be hard for them to see the advantages in staying away • Legal processes can be just too difficult, especially regarding children • Humiliation and embarrassment of having to try to access assistance and support • Lack of resilience and self-awareness

  9. Why do women and children access refuges more than once? (1) • Most do not enter homelessness accommodation at all – but if they do re-enter it may be because of: • A series of violent relationships with different perpetrators • Still deciding on their options • Advised by police to re-enter refuge • Difficulty accessing other forms of accommodation • In sufficient support times to build up life skills

  10. Why do women and children access refuges more than once? (2) • Mental health or substance abuse issues • Perpetrator ignoring a police or court order • For a temporary break – to prevent violence • Lack of long-term housing options • Poverty – 87% on a pension

  11. Why do women and children access refuges more than once? (3) • May be there for reasons other than family violence • Unable to remain in the family home with the perpetrator removed • Child protection agency conditions It is not a failure of women that they re-use refuges

  12. Community based interventions to prevent multiple experiences of homelessness • To assist indigenous Australians – night patrols • To alter societal attitudes to the acceptability of domestic and family violence – social marketing, Bega and Strength to Change

  13. Household and Family interventions to prevent multiple experiences of homelessness • To reduce poverty for women and children – Centrelink assistance – compensation for crime victims • To prevent homelessness – Sanctuary Homes, SHLV and BSafe

  14. Individual interventions to prevent multiple experiences of homelessness • To develop women’s self confidence – KYSS • To improve financial capability – Tools for Change • To provide early intervention for children – Safe from the Start, Peek-A-Boo

  15. Add Safe from the Start poster here

  16. Risk Assessment Best Practice • Risk Management and safety planning as tools to enable women to remain in their own homes • Client and staff safety • Information sharing and confidentiality

  17. Implications for Australian Policy • Integrated schemes such as SHLV can play an important role in preventing homelessness • There is a need for common methods of risk assessment and risk management for women and children who are at risk of repeated homelessness because of domestic and family violence

  18. Implications for Australian Policy continued • There is a need for national sharing of information between accredited agencies • There is a need for financial mortgage assistance for owner occupiers who chose to stay in their home with the perpetrator removed, similar to CRA for private renters

  19. Thank you!! Dr Angela Spinney aspinney@swin.edu.au

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