A a family violence educator with Safer Families and my experience with the culturally and linguistically diverse communities ( CALD), the government’s announcement to allocate $952.2M is welcome to support the Leaving Violence Program over 5 years.
Much more is required to make the systemic changes required to reduce deaths and harm from intimate partner violence and an important area is the training of the GP workforce.
GPs were identified as being the most trusted health professional outside of a close friend or family member for disclosure of family violence.
At Safer Families Centre, the programs have been well received, and the participants often train up to become facilitators, making it sustainable.
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive – we just need support to expand this.
Key Needs
- -Training GPs/ primary care nurses
- Trauma from family violence is intergenerational where the children are also affected
- A woman is most likely to be killed by her partner within the first two months when fleeing from domestic violence.
- Women of multicultural background (CALD) can face greater social barriers when leaving partners, as fear of loss of respect from family members, as well as a loss of connection with their community is strong.
- CALD women require culturally aware support workers
- Support needs to be in heritage language and in English, as the issue affects all women of multicultural background across generations.
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Source article & photo: NEOS KOSMOS
Photo: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) is joined by Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth, Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland and Commonwealth Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin (right) speak to media during a press conference after the National Cabinet meeting with state and territory leaders to discuss the domestic and family violence crisis. Photo: AAP/Dean Lewins
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
