Report Summary: Prevention Report
Report Summary: National primary prevention report Report 1 The first report of the National Primary Prevention Hub (the Hub), funded by the Commonwealth Government under the Fourth Action Plan (2019-22) of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children provides a ‘stocktake’ of the current state of primary prevention in Australia (Commonwealth of Australia, 2019). This includes the policy context, an overview of the prevention workforce, and a summary of prevention activity across the country (Our Watch, 2020). One of the Hub’s activity streams is the development of national primary prevention reports to provide information about primary prevention nationally including themes, activities, gaps, and opportunities (Our Watch, 2020). The first report presents a useful framework within which to conceptualise prevention activity. This article is a summary of some of the topics included in this report, and draws heavily from it. Primary prevention complements work undertaken in the response system. It is designed to stop violence before it starts by addressing its deep-seated drivers. Because primary prevention targets the whole population, it inevitably reaches those who are already experiencing or perpetrating violence (or who are at increased risk of doing so). As such, primary prevention also enhances early intervention and response activity by helping reduce recurrent perpetration of violence (which is driven in part by similar factors to initial perpetration), and shifting attitudes and practices in service and justice systems that may inadvertently tolerate, justify or excuse violence against women and their children. Our Watch, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) and VicHealth (2015), p. 15
Prevention workforce According to Our Watch (2020), Victoria is the only state with specialists working exclusively in primary prevention. In other jurisdictions there is a tendency for staff to deliver primary prevention initiatives while also undertaking early intervention and tertiary responses to violence against women, as well as other forms of social and community work. Our Watch (2020) also notes that Australia does not yet have the national workforce required to instigate primary prevention activities at the scale required for this work to be effective at a population level. Under the Fourth Action Plan (Commonwealth of Australia, 2019) there is action being taken to map the workforce through a national workforce development project, and the National Primary Prevention Hub will provide opportunities to link practitioners.
Health and community organisations In Australia, women’s health and community organisations, as well as specialist response services, have been significant in much of the early primary prevention work, and continue to be important stakeholders in the development and delivery of prevention work. This often embraces community development, education, and training. Women’s leadership, such as Women with Disabilities Victoria’s Enabling Women Leadership program, is frequently a focus for prevention programs. Women with Disabilities Victoria has also developed the Our Right to Safety resource, which aims to increase the access
Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research
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