Research shows that this impact can be severe and long-lasting which means that the costs to the health care system are high in a time when there are increasing demands on the finite resources available for health services. Queensland Health also recognises the need for early intervention which will help to minimise these costs and eventually allow the reallocation of resources to other priority areas.
As in other fields of healthcare, separating aspects of violence against women is artificial and arbitrary. However, looking at it in various categories can make it easier to develop ways to address the problem and so violence against women is often sub-divided into domestic violence, sexual violence, elder abuse and the impact on childhood sexual abuse of adult females. It is acknowledged that not all victims of this violence are women, but the evidence shows that most of them are.
At present Queensland Health's main initiatives to combat this violence are in the fields of domestic violence and sexual violence.
Domestic violence is acknowledged to be a serious social problem which affects individuals, families, communities, the workplace and the economy. Australian Government initiatives like the Commonwealth Partnerships Against Domestic Violence and a range of programs and services in all States of Australia have been set up to address domestic violence. However, although health professionals have provided a clinical response to immediate physical injury, until recently there was no system-wide approach and little recognition of the less obvious or long term impact of domestic violence on women's health.
In Queensland, most of the 27 specific services set up in the 1990s to assist women who experience sexual violence were community managed information, counselling and referral services funded through Queensland Health's Sexual Assault Support and Prevention Program. Four specialised sexual assault services which provide acute care were established through the Program in the late 1990s to enhance the capacity of generic health to provide an appropriate response to women who have experience recent sexual violence.
The National Women's Health Policy (NWHP), which was ratified by all Australian States and Territories in 1989, is based on consultation with over 1 million women. Violence is one of the seven health issues the women identified as priority and, with reproductive health and mental health, it has remained at the top of their list in surveys and consultations.
Queensland Health is currently implementing these strategies through two initiatives:
This page last updated:
27 July, 2006
Review date: July, 2007
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