GETTING CONNECTED IN LOGAN RIVER VALLEY POLICE AND COMMUNITY SERVICES COORDINATED RESPONSE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

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1 GETTING CONNECTED IN LOGAN RIVER VALLEY POLICE AND COMMUNITY SERVICES COORDINATED RESPONSE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Sergeant Maree Foelz Logan District Domestic Violence Response Coordinator Queensland Police Service

2 The Logan River Valley encompasses the geographical area of Beenleigh, Beaudesert Shire and Logan City. This area coincides with the Logan Police District, one of two Districts in the South Eastern Region, south of Brisbane, which is one of eight police Regions across the State of Queensland, Australia. Over the past 25 years, the area has experienced rapid population growth, leaving community and human services, and infrastructure struggling to meet the community needs. The Logan River Valley Integrated Community Response (ICR) to Domestic Violence Group, with funding from the Logan City Council, commissioned a study in 1998 to consider a model for an integrated response to domestic violence in the area. Other relevant models were considered, notably the Duluth Abuse Intervention Project (USA) and the related Hamilton Abuse Intervention Project (New Zealand). In both, Duluth being the first, a coalition of community and government services recognised the need for integration of the law enforcement and domestic violence support services in response to domestic violence. Crisis intervention support for aggrieved persons is combined with perpetrator education programs. As a result of the 1998 study, the ICR adopted a four-phase Domestic Violence Community Response strategy incorporating Fax-Back for Aggrieved and Respondents. The time-frame for full implementation of the strategy is eight years ( ). Phases 1 and 2, Fax-Back for Aggrieved and Fax-Back for Respondents are currently active. Phase three envisages the establishment of a specialist domestic violence unit to be located within the police service, and phase four moves to a 24 hour rapid response capacity. The Logan River Valley ICR brings together these government and community organisations with a commitment to reducing domestic violence the Working Against Violence Support Service (WAVSS) (Regional DV Service) and the Queensland Police Service (QPS)(Logan District), Youth and Family Services (Logan City) Inc. (YFS), LifeLine, Women s Legal Aid, Queensland Community Corrections, Logan City Council, Logan Central and Beenleigh Community Health centres (Queensland Health), the Domestic Violence Court Assistance Program, Koongoora women s refuge, Murrigunyah Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women s Corporation, the Centre Against Sexual Violence, Multi-cultural services and Community Centre representatives. As the Logan District Domestic Violence Liaison Officer (DDVLO) for the last 9 years, I have been a member of both the ICR and more recently the Project Management Team for the Fax-Back Project, and I am honoured to present this paper to you on behalf of both those groups. The ICR members recognise that domestic violence does not occur in isolation from other social issues which impact upon its perpetrators and victims, and that no one area of need can be effectively responded to in isolation from services to address the others. It is well documented that domestic violence is a pervasive social problem in the Logan River Valley region. Domestic violence is part of the complex interrelationship between un-met social needs of individual and communities, both related to social disadvantage and itself creating the need for services to reduce it s impact. The numbers of domestic violence protection order applications is one indicator of the incidence of domestic violence. Applications for the Logan River Valley area are usually made in the Southern Districts Magistrates Court (Beenleigh Court). That court heard the second-highest number of domestic violence order applications in Queensland in 2000/2001. Other indicators of need closely related to domestic violence are crime rates, the demand for child protection services and for emergency and public housing, and income support beneficiary levels. 2

3 These factors combine to create a demand for social services in the Logan River Valley which is reported by service providers to far outstrip supply. The report commissioned by the ICR in 1998 noted that: Support services in the region report a significant proportion of their work is in response to the direct or indirect results of domestic violence. One counselling service reports that over 50% of counselling is related to issues of domestic violence; another service reports 70% of casework is domestic violence related. The integrated response to domestic violence in the Logan River Valley area necessarily involves the Queensland law enforcement, judicial, housing and family and community service systems, and the Federal income security and family law systems. These service systems impact not only on the crisis intervention response to domestic violence but also on the availability of services required by aggrieved persons and their children. Affecting children as well as aggrieved adults, domestic violence can result in escalating inter-generational impacts if timely intervention does not occur. The need for an integrated response to domestic violence is reflected in policy across State Government departments. These State-level policy directions ultimately reinforce the strategies of the localised Logan River Valley ICR. They include: - the Domestic Violence Strategic Plan of the Queensland Police Service (QPS) which among other objectives relating to improved police response to domestic violence has, as its Key Result Area 3, collaborative partnerships with other agencies and the community in a coordinated response to domestic violence - the Domestic Violence (Family Protection) Act 1989 administered by the Department of Families, which provides the legal framework for private and police applications for domestic violence protection orders (DVPO s) and for the decisions of Magistrate Courts about these orders, along with the procedures for application and service of orders - the Domestic Violence Initiatives program administered by the Department of Families which provides funding for domestic violence response and prevention services such as WAVSS. The Department of Families also has responsibility to ensure a responsive and high quality system within Queensland for responding to domestic violence. A recent review of domestic violence responses reinforced the current emphasis on interagency coordination, particularly the development of coordinated community responses. The Fax-Back Domestic Violence Project incorporates phase one and phase two of a four-phase model for responding to the incidence of domestic violence in the Logan River Valley region in south-eastern Queensland. It is one of two fax-back programs in Queensland of a similar (but not identical) nature. The Gold Coast Domestic Violence Integrated Response (GCDVIR) fax-back service commenced in As previously mentioned, it is an initiative of the Logan River Valley Integrated Community Response to Domestic Violence Group ( the ICR ), which was established in 1996 and adopted the four-phase strategic plan in In 1999 the Logan Police District of the Queensland Police Service (QPS) received funding under the Queensland Housing Community Renewal Program to implement the Fax-Back Project for Aggrieved Persons (Phase 1) as a pilot project. The project was coordinated by the Working 3

4 Against Violence Support Service (WAVSS), a Regional community-based domestic violence service located in Logan Central. The project worker for phase 1 is employed through WAVSS. The project commenced in September 1999, was operationalised in the Logan Central and Browns Plains Police Divisions in February 2000, and was extended to the Slacks Creek and Beenleigh Police Divisions in September Phase 2 of the project, Fax-Back for Responent persons, commenced in February 2002 in same four Police Divisions. The project worker for phase 2 is employed through Youth and Family Services, Logan City (Inc), a service which runs (among other things) a Men Overcoming Violence for Equality (MOVE) perpetrator program. Phase 1 of the Fax-Back Project is a localised coordinated response to domestic violence. It aims to reduce the incidence of domestic violence through improving the quality of service to aggrieved persons and coordinating: the police law enforcement response the domestic violence crisis support response, and responses of other services required by the aggrieved to avoid further violence and to ameliorate its effects. Other related objectives of the Project are to: improve the safety and security of aggrieved persons enhance referral pathways for aggrieved persons to access necessary services provide timely intervention at the time of domestic violence crisis improve community awareness of domestic violence provide data to improve the accountability of police and support services. In practice Fax-Back involves police who attend domestic violence incidents connecting aggrieved and respondent persons, with crisis counselling, support, information and referral services at WAVSS and YFS, respectively. Police attending a domestic violence incident, serving documents (or providing a counter service to an aggrieved or respondent person) ask the aggrieved and respondent person if they would like to be contacted by a worker at WAVSS or YFS (the Fax-Back project workers). If they consent to that contact, they sign the Fax-Back referral form to authorise police to fax the completed form to WAVSS or YFS respectively. The police also provide the aggrieved and respondent person with a Fax-Back brochure or card which outlines how the respective service operates, presents information about domestic violence, and provides useful telephone numbers. When WAVSS receives the fax from police, the Fax-Back worker contacts the aggrieved person by telephone as soon as possible (usually the next day) to provide support and information, and to help the aggrieved person develop a safety plan. The Fax-Back worker acts as a first point of contact for aggrieved persons, to link them with other services relevant to their particular concerns, such as: legal services domestic violence protection orders housing and emergency accommodation income support and emergency financial aid children s services 4

5 ongoing counselling and support. The rationale underpinning the service is that if the fear and isolation of many aggrieved persons can be lessened through their being linked with support services, and if this occurs at a time of crisis when they are most likely to act to change their situation, more victims of domestic violence will be assisted to break the cycle of violence. Some early statistics from the evaluation of Phase 1 showed that, 91% of aggrieved people that WAVSS assisted, had never had contact with the service in the past; and 80% of aggrieved people interviewed reported feeling safer as a result of contact with Police and WAVSS in the context of Fax-Back. When YFS receives a fax from police, the Fax-Back worker contacts the respondent person by telephone as soon as possible to provide information based on challenging their behaviour, referral to other services (such as accommodation, legal services) if needed. This worker also acts as a first point of contact for arranging individual counselling to challenge their behaviour and invite them to group sessions (open 16 week group, entry at any time) Phase One, Fax-Back for Aggrieved, has been operational since February 2000 across the four stations of Logan Central, Browns Plains, Beenleigh/Eagleby and Slacks Creek. As at 30 June 2002, 1273 aggrieved have been provided with crisis support as a result of a police Fax-Back referral to WAVSS (which is approximately 50% of the total faxes received). Phase One has recently undergone an external evaluation. Phase Two, Fax-Back for Respondents, has been operational since February 2002 across the same 4 Police stations. As at 30 June 2002, police have forwarded 442 faxes to YFS, with 106 respondents consenting to contact by the Fax-Back Worker (approximately 25% of faxes received). These respondents have been offered crisis counselling and attendance at a group program specifically designed for the Fax-Back project. The external evaluation undertaken by Ann Elliott and released in October 2001, found that Phase One has been effective in meeting its proposed outcomes (as per funding submission) of improving safety and security of aggrieved and their children, assisting aggrieved to address their needs for support and assisting to integrate aggrieved and their children into the broader community by enhancing their access to services and systems. Strategies are also being developed from the evaluation recommendations to further enhance the capacity of Phase One to meet these outcomes. With the development of Phase Two complete, the process of assisting respondents to address their use of violence/abuse continues. In the first few months of this year, joint training provided by YFS, WAVSS and QPS of 250 operational police was completed, ensuring a successful implementation of Phase Two. An additional outcome from the joint work of Phases One and Two has been the integration of service delivery to aggrieved and respondents within the same family. Other outcomes of improving responsiveness of police and other systems to families experiencing domestic violence is an ongoing issue being addressed through the development of a range of strategies in the Project Management Group. For example, the Management Group planned and hosted Queensland s Inaugural Fax-Back Forum on October 2 nd 2002, which brought together Fax- Back programs from around the State to share information and jointly problem-solve issues in relation to police and community responses to domestic violence. To meet the outcome of maintaining the involvement of the broader community in the project and the broader ICR strategy 5

6 in Logan, a Community Forum was held in Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Week in May The Fax-Back Project Management Team (comprising Police, WAVSS and YFS) meet on a monthly basis for planning purposes. The Management Team also meets bi-monthly with Divisional Domestic Violence Liaison Officers to address operational issues in the implementation of Fax-Back, and monthly with the Logan Police and Community Domestic Violence Response Group to identify and problem-solve issues with the broader police and community response to domestic violence. The Domestic Violence Response Group is an initiative of the Superintendent of Logan Police District and the Fax-Back Project Management Group, and has a broader purpose to jointly monitor, research and problem solve in order to improve police and community response to domestic violence in the Logan District. DVRG determined that its objectives are: to ensure a multi-agency approach to the development and implementation of solutions to identified DV issues and problems; to identify and analyse DV response problems and develop and implement solutions; and to ensure clear and open communication processes occur between police and the community. Excerpt from summary of recommendations from Executive Summary of Phase 1 Evaluation, October Police training That Fax-Back training is provided on a regular basis, and auditing occurs to ensure that all operational and supervisory police have received the training. That a longer training session be provided, to better promote police understanding of the dynamics of domestic violence and the positive use of Fax-Back as a preventative tool. That WAVSS and the QPS explore means of providing in-service training for police on issues identified as requiring follow-up training. That future training about Fax-Back is provided jointly by QPS and WAVSS to reinforce that it is a QPS initiative and to confirm relevant QPS directives. QPS implementation That the key roles of DVLO s, in ensuring all operational police understand the purposes of Fax- Back and in promoting positive attitudes about its use, be recognised and resourced. That both training and monitoring focus upon ensuring that police officers do not take a discretionary approach to offering the Fax-Back service, with the aim that it is offered in all cases of spousal domestic dispute, irrespective of the presenting circumstances. That each QPS Division implements a means of monitoring returns of Fax-Back forms for all matters recorded as police action on the DV Index, and follow up with individual officers to ensure completion and faxing. That periodic case study auditing of no action responses to domestic violence incidents is undertaken, to ascertain the appropriateness of the responses. 6

7 Interagency Coordination That QPS and WAVSS undertake strategic planning towards an improved integrated response to the security needs of aggrieved persons after the initial crisis intervention. That it is noted that the effectiveness of Fax-Back in facilitating client pathways to other services is impeded by lack of resources, particularly lack of emergency housing, accessible legal assistance, and counselling, and that these resource deficits therefore have an impact upon repeat domestic violence. That the degree of coordination between services at an organisational planning level (for domestic violence responses) be examined as part of future evaluation of the effectiveness of the ICR and of its domestic violence strategy. Ongoing monitoring and review That the Fax-Back management team develops and implements a quality control strategy to actively address issues identified by monitoring and review processes, where these relate to police or WAVSS service provision. Future evaluation That a research program which builds upon the findings and recommendations of this evaluation be developed and implemented, to ascertain the outcomes/issues for categories of aggrieved persons not able to be included in the current study. It is suggested that this would involve a regular periodic sampling of clients in each of the categories of aggrieved persons who are offered (and who are not offered) the Fax-Back service. Awards. The Fax-Back Project won two awards in 2001, being, The Australasian Council of Women and Policing Inc. National Award for Achievementin Policing Community Award; and The Australian Violence Prevention Awards: the Australian Heads of Government 2001, Certificate of Merit. 7

8 References Elliott, Anne Evaluation of the Fax-Back Project Logan River Valley Integrated Community Response to Domestic Violence Group, unpublished. MIMS & Associates, 1998 Final Report: Logan River Valley Integrated Community Response to Domestic Violence Project, unpublished. 8