Family and Domestic Violence Strategy

The DVA Family and Domestic Violence Strategy 2020–25 is DVA’s commitment to the wellbeing of veterans and their families and outlines our approach over the next five years to improving the support for those affected by family and domestic violence.

In addition to our continuing dedication to the DVA Family and Domestic Violence Strategy 2020–2025, DVA is committed to the new whole of government initiative, the 'National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032’.

The National Plan was released on 17 October 2022 and recognises for the first time veterans and their families. Read the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032.

Progress on the Strategy's implementation

In 2021-22 DVA continued to implement the initiatives we commenced in 2020-21 and also started some new initiatives.

• We continued to provide 24-hour free confidential mental health support through Open Arms. This support includes crisis accommodation and trauma support for veterans, partners and dependent children impacted by family and domestic violence.
• We delivered a targeted family and domestic violence training program to DVA staff across Australia, including specific training for managers and front line staff. The program is evaluated on an on-going basis to ensure it remains up to date.
• We encouraged staff to complete our domestic violence e-learning course.
• We developed a quick reference guide to help our front line staff recognise and respond to family and domestic violence situations.
• We continued to raise awareness of the dedicated Open Arms – Veterans and Families Counselling line (1800 011 046) in the veteran community.
• Our targeted social media campaigns reached 69,115 views. The campaigns included topics such as ‘Financial Abuse’, ‘Youth Homelessness Awareness’, ‘World Elder Abuse Awareness Day’, ‘Technology Facilitated Abuse’, and ‘Coercive Control'.
• There were 1,134 visits to this strategy webpage.
• We started a combined research partnership with Phoenix Australia around recognition and responses to Intimate Partner Violence in the Australian context.
• We joined a community of practice with other members of the veteran and mainstream support community, led by RSL Lifecare. The aim of this partnership is to better understand the issue in our community to design better support services.
• We took part in whole-of-government family and domestic violence workshops to raise awareness of the unique veteran experience across mainstream government services.

We also ensured that DVA staff impacted by family and domestic violence received appropriate support through a range of measures.

• We promoted the dedicated employee hotline, delivered through our Employee Assistance Program.
• We made sure employee conditions contained in the DVA Enterprise Agreement 2019-2022 provided the necessary confidentiality and support.
• We asked for feedback from DVA staff using the Australian Public Service staff census and the DVA Staff Survey. This gave us valuable insights on how we can help DVA staff detect and respond to colleagues and clients impacted by family and domestic violence.

Veteran Family Advocate Commissioner

The role of the Veteran Family Advocate is to represent the perspectives of veteran families in ongoing policy and decision-making across government.

The Veteran Family Advocate Commissioner, Gwen Cherne, attended the National Summit on Women’s Safety in September 2021 to represent the experiences of veterans and their families on this issue.

The Commissioner also took part in the whole-of-government working group for the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Their Children. Monash University published a working group report that identified military and veteran families as a priority cohort for the next version of the Plan.