Strengthening Health Responses to Family Violence program

The Strengthening Health Responses to Family Violence (SHRFV) training program at Canberra Health Services (CHS) builds capability of frontline health staff to respond to domestic and family violence (DFV) in the health context. From 2019 to 2025, CHS delivered the SHRFV program, which is an evidence-based program, based on national and international best practice. The SHRFV program focused on building capacity and strengthening capability of health staff to identify and respond to DFV, noting many victim-survivors choose to disclose their DFV experiences to health professionals for the first time.

The SHRFV program embodied a whole of organisation cultural change process aimed at sustained attitudinal and behavioural change relating to the drivers and responses to family violence. SHRFV provided tiered family violence training and included risk assessment and safety planning for victim-survivors who shared their experience of DFV. SHRFV had a positive impact on the wellbeing of victim-survivors of DFV accessing the health service by enhancing frontline health worker capability to respond to DFV presentations. Given Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised and 11 times more likely to die from family violence-related assault than non-Indigenous women, this critical capability building strengthened CHS’s ability to promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victim-survivors’ safety, right to self-determination and consider cultural sensitivities and family and community connections when working with them. As such, the SHRFV program supported collaborative, culturally informed and culturally safe practice in health settings. Program funding ceased on 30 June 2025.