By Jesse Graham
FAMILY violence victims in the valley may have to travel to Lilydale to seek support from healthcare providers, after Eastern Health handed over its Healesville and Yarra Junction-based programs to Anglicare Victoria.
On Thursday, 15 December, Eastern Health’s Ambulatory and Community Service Program Director, Shannon Lang, confirmed that the company’s Family Violence Support Service and Men’s Behaviour Change Program would be transferred to Anglicare’s Lilydale office.
The service was previously offered in Healesville and Yarra Junction, and Ms Lang said funding from Department of Health and Human Services would be redirected to Anglicare to run the programs.
“Eastern Health will support the organisation to deliver family violence services from our Healesville site,” she said.
“While Eastern Health will no longer be providing advocacy and case management, we will continue to provide family violence counselling through our community health counselling service at Healesville and Yarra Junction.
“Furthermore, our health promotion team now includes a role specifically aimed at preventing violence towards women and children.”
Ms Lang said the change would “ensure services are sustainable now and into the future”, and that Eastern Health would work in partnership with agencies to direct people experiencing family violence to services they need.
“This is not a reduction in the availability of services but a change in who is providing them,” she said.
“This will lead to better outcomes for our clients because they will be receiving care and support from organisations that specialise in family violence case management and advocacy.”
Former Yarra Valley Community Health manager and Healesville resident Jane Judd, who sought funding to develop the program in the 2000s, said the change could discourage family violence victims from seeking help.
“It adds at least an hour, but probably two hours for transport time to Lilydale, and that would be enough of a disadvantage for some – but certainly, their risk … to be outside where their perpetrator would normally expect to find them,” she said.
“I think it needs to be recognised that this has happened and, for a large number of clients, this will be deeply distressing just before Christmas.”
Ms Judd praised the work of Eastern Health’s Debra Cahill, a clinician in the family violence support service for more than a decade, and said the change of service provider could be off-putting to current clients.
Ms Cahill, through Yarra Valley Community Health, partnered with the Mail in 2011 to produce a six-week Stop the Violence campaign, featuring interviews with survivors and health experts to explain family violence, how to identify it, and how to seek help.
“The concern is whether the current clients of Debra have been given an adequate amount of time to have a final session with Debra … remembering that a clinician that cares for someone in a domestic violence scenario, it’s not like going to a new dentist – you develop a relationship of trust, and that can’t be handed over with the money to Anglicare,” Ms Judd said.
“I think it’s unfortunate that this is probably a group who can’t speak up to advocate for themselves, or their sense of loss and grief that Debra is no longer providing that service, because it is not safe to do so.”
Ms Lang said Eastern Health’s clients in the programs were contacted to inform them about the change and to “discuss their transition, if required,” to Anglicare or another service provider.
Anyone experiencing family violence, or seeking help, can contact Anglicare Victoria’s Lilydale office on 9735 4188, or at 47-51 Castella Street, Lilydale.
Eastern Legal Community Centre also offers help for people experiencing family violence and can be contacted on 5962 1665 or at the Healesville Community Link at 110 River Street, Healesville.
Local police stations can also help refer people to support services and can help to organise an intervention order. Healesville Police can be called on 5962 4422. Yarra Junction Police can be contacted on 5967 1104, while Lilydale Police can be contacted on 9739 2300.
To book an Eastern Health counselling session, call 1300 342 255 and select option 7.
In a violent situation or an emergency, always call triple-zero.
