INTRODUCTION

The objective of the Family and Domestic Violence Training Package Participants’ Kit is to provide participants with written information which can be used as a resource in their daily work practice.

The Family and Domestic Violence Training Package Participants’ Kit contains all the information from training overheads plus an extra component on gendered crimes. Given the scope of the HDWA Family and Domestic Violence Project, the Participants’ Kit has been written with the intention of providing an overview of key issues pertaining to a health industry response to Family and Domestic Violence.

Incorporated in the Participants’ Kit is material from The Family and Domestic Violence Action Plan and Progress Report and the Western Australian Health Policy and Implementation Plan to Address Family and Domestic Violence released by the Health Department of Western Australia in March, 1997.

The Participants’ Kit is informed by research findings which outlined three barriers in health systems that negatively affected the response by health professionals to women affected by Family and Domestic Violence (Kurz, D. and Stark, E. 1988). These barriers include:

1. "Myths and stereotypes that fail to acknowledge the role and responsibility of health professionals intervening in cases of violence;
2. The structure of the health system which has tended to ignore and minimise the health needs of abused women; and
3. The structural constraints and fragmentation of the health system that inhibit an effective response."(Davies, J. et al, 1996)

The Family and Domestic Violence Training Package is designed to incorporate audience and local requirements. It is anticipated that further training material will require development to meet specific needs as they are identified.

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Last Updated: Friday, 20 March 1998 10:28