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September 13, 2019 at 12:24 PM

From the NZFVC

A new article urges mental health and addiction services to reframe the way they understand and respond to family violence.

The article, Thinking differently: Re‐framing family violence responsiveness in the mental health and addictions health care context (Short, Cram, Roguski, Smith & Koziol-McLain, 2019) is published by the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing. Written by Family Violence Death Review Committee members and staff, it draws on 28 in-depth New Zealand family violence death reviews carried out between 2011 and 2018.

Co-author Dr Jacqueline Short says there is a strong association between family violence and mental health and addiction issues in Aotearoa New Zealand, and that people who experience and use violence within their whānau are often in contact with mental health and addiction services.

The paper notes that responses to family violence within health care settings remains limited because it is treated and resourced as a marginal health issue, and because responses are modelled on addressing a simple problem, rather than a "complex social problem that requires a comprehensive and equitable health system response." 

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