Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Dawn House Executive Officer Susan Crane is reminding victims of domestic violence about the support available after a spate of serious incidents

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Dawn House Executive Officer Susan Crane is reminding victims of domestic violence about the support available after a spate of serious incidents · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: But we know that there has been a serious spate
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  Speaker 1: of domestic violence incidents over the last week in the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory. In one incident that I did tell you
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  Speaker 1: about earlier this morning, a man allegedly grabbed his partner
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  Speaker 1: by the throat, tried to run her over, broke into
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  Speaker 1: her home and took took her two year old girl.
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  Speaker 1: In another incident, a twenty eight year old man allegedly
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  Speaker 1: assaulted his former partner, dragging her by the hair before
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  Speaker 1: breaking one of her fingers. In a separate incident, a
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  Speaker 1: fifty year old man allegedly broke his partner's jaw. Police
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  Speaker 1: are pleading with people to report domestic violence and reach
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  Speaker 1: out for help. Now joining me on the line is
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  Speaker 1: Dawn House Executive Officer Susan Crane. Good morning to you, Susan,
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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Thanks so much for your time this morning. Susan,
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  Speaker 1: what is your reaction to these incidents?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's very confronting, but it's not that it's anything new.
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  Speaker 2: But the end of the violence and these incidents is
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  Speaker 2: particularly worrying, isn't it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's honestly, it's really hard to sort of hear
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  Speaker 1: and I know that for a lot of people listening,
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  Speaker 1: it will be really hard to hear. But as you've said,
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  Speaker 1: it's confronting but nothing new.
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  Speaker 2: Well, no it's not. The NT's got one of the
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  Speaker 2: highest rates of domestic and family violence in Australia. So
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  Speaker 2: that's the reason why both the NT government and agencies
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  Speaker 2: like Dawn House so calling for the Commonwealth Government to
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  Speaker 2: please considered funding us on needs based rather than population based.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that that's a very reasonable call, you know,
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  Speaker 1: like you've said that, obviously we do have high rates
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  Speaker 1: of domestic violence here in the Northern Territory, so it
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  Speaker 1: does make sense to me that it would be something
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  Speaker 1: that happens on a needs based rather than your population.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's exactly right, and we have been saying that
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  Speaker 2: for a long time to the Commonwealth Government. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: we're hoping that at some stage of the message will
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  Speaker 2: get through and they'll reconsider the way that we're funded
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  Speaker 2: up here. Because agency is up here such as Dawnhouse.
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  Speaker 2: We're just being hammered, you know, since the onset of COVID.
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  Speaker 2: We were busy before, but we've never been so busy,
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  Speaker 2: and that's been going on for the last two years.
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  Speaker 2: We don't have a vacancy. Ever, we've got people lined
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  Speaker 2: up waiting to get into the refuge, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: sometimes we can't find anywhere to place people because everywhere
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  Speaker 2: is full, which is really concerning.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, what is the situation if you don't have
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  Speaker 1: a place for somewhere someone and they've got nowhere else
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  Speaker 1: to go? What happens?
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  Speaker 2: Well, what we try and do is we've got some
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  Speaker 2: Commonwealth money available so that we can provide accommodation to
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  Speaker 2: women off site, and then we try to provide outreach
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  Speaker 2: support to that person and their children. But sometimes, especially
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  Speaker 2: in the Drive for example, it's very hard to do
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  Speaker 2: that because a there's hardly any vacancy seen offside accommodation,
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  Speaker 2: and be all of the hotel cost go up in
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  Speaker 2: the dry season, which makes it really difficult for a
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  Speaker 2: small organization like us to meet those costs. So unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: sometimes we're turning people away and we can't provide them
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  Speaker 2: any alternative accommodation.
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  Speaker 1: That must be incredibly difficult for you guys. You know,
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  Speaker 1: everybody that will work, I'm sure with Dawnhouse wuld want
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  Speaker 1: to be doing everything possible to try and help people.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's exactly right. You know, I've got a
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  Speaker 2: fantastic team of really committed staff here who you know,
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  Speaker 2: work tirelessly to provide support services to women and their
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  Speaker 2: children escaping domestic violence. But you know, we've only got
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  Speaker 2: two case managers here, so I can't keep on just
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  Speaker 2: piling work more and more and more under staff because
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  Speaker 2: there's only a limit as to what we can actually do.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Susan, I know that you said you know that
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  Speaker 1: from COVID you've seen an increase, but have those numbers
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  Speaker 1: been quite high? Have people are presenting or coming to
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  Speaker 1: drnhouse in recent weeks and months? Es?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, I mean an example is last Monday, we
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  Speaker 2: had seven referrals in one day and we were full,
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  Speaker 2: so we were scrambling around trying to find some alternative
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  Speaker 2: accommodation for those people. I mean, sometimes we get referrals
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  Speaker 2: and that people don't feed our criteria because their criteria
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  Speaker 2: is women with children escaping domestic and family violence. So
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  Speaker 2: we're unable to help women that identify as homeless, for example.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, the demand to far far outweighs the supply,
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  Speaker 2: and it's been like that for years, Susan.
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  Speaker 1: Can you talk us through what kind of assistance is
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  Speaker 1: available to victims.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a range of services available. So there's free
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  Speaker 2: legal advice through top End Women's Legal Service and Domestic
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  Speaker 2: Violence Legal Service. There's shelters such as Dawnhouse. So there's
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  Speaker 2: four shelters in Darwin, there's one in Noulan Boy, one
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  Speaker 2: in Catherine, one in Tenant Creek, and one in Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 2: Some of the communities have got safe houses there. There's
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  Speaker 2: twenty eight safe houses across the Northern Territory. There's agencies
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  Speaker 2: around which can help with emergency relief funding so that
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  Speaker 2: can assist with things like food vouchers and that sort
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  Speaker 2: of stuff. Women can come into the shelter and then
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  Speaker 2: they'll be case managed by staff at the shelter and
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  Speaker 2: they can stay for up to three months of intensive support.
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  Speaker 2: We can provide outreach support. We can provide someone just
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  Speaker 2: that if they need to ring up and just have
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  Speaker 2: a chat with somebody, we're happy to talk through things
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  Speaker 2: with people. There's specialist domestic violence counselors around. There's men's
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  Speaker 2: behavior change programs for men that decide they might want
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  Speaker 2: to change their behavior. So there's a whole range of
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  Speaker 2: services available and diactively encourage not only people that are
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  Speaker 2: experiencing violence themselves, but also for bystanders to be aware
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  Speaker 2: of the services around so that maybe if they see
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  Speaker 2: or know that there's domestic violence going on with someone
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  Speaker 2: that they know they can actually provide them with some
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  Speaker 2: referral points.
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  Speaker 1: Susan, you did just spark my memory by saying that
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  Speaker 1: there were those men's behavioral programs as well that are
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  Speaker 1: on offer. I know that there was the changes about
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  Speaker 1: a week and a half ago when it came to
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  Speaker 1: mandatory sentencing, and it did impact or it does impact
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  Speaker 1: from my understanding, some incidents of domestic violence. From your perspective,
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  Speaker 1: how will those changes make much of a difference and
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  Speaker 1: will they help victims?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think you know, the opportunity that magistrates have
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  Speaker 2: to mandate that someone attends the men's behavior change program,
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  Speaker 2: you know, could have a positive outcome for some people,
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  Speaker 2: for some men that use violence. But you know, the
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  Speaker 2: bottom line is that if a man's using violence against
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  Speaker 2: his partner, he has to be prepared to make some
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  Speaker 2: pretty big changes in the way that he behaves. So
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  Speaker 2: for some people that would work, and maybe for some
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  Speaker 2: people that wouldn't.
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  Speaker 1: And Susan, with those programs as well, I mean, you've
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  Speaker 1: touched on quite a few different programs, but with the
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  Speaker 1: behavioral change programs, the rates fairly high. When it comes
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  Speaker 1: to you to if someone's gone through a program like that,
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  Speaker 1: do you generally see a change in their behavior.
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  Speaker 2: That's really difficult for me to comment on because, Dawnhouse,
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  Speaker 2: we don't actually run the men's behavior change program in Darwin.
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  Speaker 2: That's run through Catholic Care, so they'll be the agency
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  Speaker 2: that has all of the statistics. But we do have
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  Speaker 2: a worker here that supports women whose partners are going
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  Speaker 2: through the men's behavior Change program, and some of those
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  Speaker 2: women do say that they have noticed a difference in
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  Speaker 2: the way that their partners have behaved after attending that program.
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  Speaker 2: And then some women say they don't see any change
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  Speaker 2: at all, but I don't have no that's.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, no, absolutely fine, We'll make sure that we follow
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  Speaker 1: that up anyway. Susan. You know a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: listening this morning, you know, may be fortunate enough to
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  Speaker 1: not be in a relationship where there is any kind
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  Speaker 1: of violence, to have been raised, in families where this
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  Speaker 1: is not something that's ever been an issue in their lives.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think that for some out there listening this
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  Speaker 1: morning that it would actually be quite a surprise if
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  Speaker 1: they realized some of the people that are actually going
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  Speaker 1: through these really difficult situations with domestic violence.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it is. It would be surprising because
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  Speaker 2: maybe there's a general understanding out there that it's only people,
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  Speaker 2: perhaps the lower socioeconomic areas that experience domestic violence. But
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  Speaker 2: the statistics show that it affects everybody. There's not one
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  Speaker 2: group more affected than the other. So you know, you
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  Speaker 2: could have someone that's an executive director with the Northern
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  Speaker 2: Territory government or someone that is clean houses. It can
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  Speaker 2: affect anybody, regardless of their social standing.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Susan, we obviously know that the federal budget is
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  Speaker 1: being handed down tonight. Are you hoping that there is
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  Speaker 1: going to be any funding or anything announced for the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory when it comes to domestic violence.
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  Speaker 2: I look absolutely there has to be, because you know
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  Speaker 2: that I could just say from my service, we run
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  Speaker 2: on the smell of an oily rag. We don't have
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  Speaker 2: any fat in our budget at all. And what I'm
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  Speaker 2: hoping is it unlike in the past where we keep
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  Speaker 2: on getting these one off grants thrown at the Northern
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  Speaker 2: Territory that the NT the Commonwealth government has listened and
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  Speaker 2: will commit to some ongoing funding so that services such
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  Speaker 2: as ours can tackle them domestic violence issue in the
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning. I think it's
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  Speaker 1: really important, you know, for people to get that insight
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  Speaker 1: and certainly, you know, to understand a little bit more
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  Speaker 1: about the issues that we have with domestic violence here
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  Speaker 1: in the territory, Suason, is there anything else we should
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  Speaker 1: be aware of before I let you go?
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  Speaker 2: I guess I'll just say to people, if you're aware
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  Speaker 2: that domestic is violence is going on, or you see
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  Speaker 2: domestic violence happening, you know, please do something about it.
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  Speaker 2: Don't just stand by and let it happen. Ring the
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  Speaker 2: police intervene if it's safe, but at least do something
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  Speaker 2: about it because it's everyone's responsibility.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good message to end on.
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  Speaker 2: Susan.
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  Speaker 1: We really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much
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  Speaker 1: for speaking with us.
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  Speaker 2: You're very welcome, Thank you, thank you.