ACT

JENNY CHAPMAN
Project Manager, Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence (SHRFV), Royal Women’s Hospital

 
 

ACT refers to the practical actions which support domestic violence identification and response within the health system, as well as activities related to learning for the strengthening of existing systems.

At the CLINIC level, important elements for domestic violence and response were:

  • having the support of a team: having a ‘team behind me’

  • different categories of practitioners playing their part:
    ‘all eyes on it’

  • having clear roles

  • having support processes

At a HEALTH SYSTEM level, the support for the work requires:

  • strong leadership

  • resourcing

  • provision of infrastructure (electronic and environment)

Reflective Questions

Use these questions to reflect on how your team works together to respond to domestic violence and how you feel about the health system leadership, resourcing and infrastructure to enable this.

Suggested Scripts

Here are some helpful ways for asking about domestic violence again later and responding to a woman’s disclosure.