Family violence support

OUTREACH SERVICES

Women's Health West hosts a range of services for women and children in the Western Metropolitan Region affected by family and domestic violence. Contact us via email or on the numbers below for information and referral to a wide range of services.

One of these services is Outreach Support. Outreach Support Workers can provide women affected by family or domestic violence with free face-to-face or telephone support. Their main aim is to help you take more control over your life. One way is by giving you information and assistance that may help you decide for yourself what to do.

These are some of the ways an Outreach Support Service may be able to help you:

Emotional support and information: If there is violence in your family, friends and other family members can be vital supports. It can also really help to speak to someone like an Outreach Worker, who is professionally trained to give you emotional support and information, and to help you think through your options.

Making a safety plan: An Outreach Worker can help you decide on the steps you need to take to keep you and your children safe now, and to plan for your safety in the future.

Protecting your children: Your children have the right to be safe. An Outreach Worker would work with you to ensure your children's safety. She has a legal obligation to involve other services (for example counselling, mental health services, the police or child protection) only if she is concerned that you or your children are in danger.

Crisis and practical support: If you feel a change is needed, for example leaving the family home, an Outreach Worker can give you both emotional support and practical help with things like finding a safe place to stay, getting support for your children, getting income support, and obtaining counselling and other services.

Legal/court support: Outreach Workers can tell you all about your legal options. For example, many women do not realise that family violence is a crime, and that they can report it to the police. Many women also do not realise that they do not have to leave their home if they are experiencing family violence. Instead, they may be able to obtain an intervention order against the person hurting them. This is a court order that requires that person to leave the family home and stay away from those they have been violence towards. An Outreach Worker can give you support to talk to the police, to go to courts, or to apply for an intervention order.

Information and referral: Outreach Workers can link you to a wide range of other services than can help you and your children. These include Centres Against Sexual Assault, children's services, free or low-cost counselling, refuges, housing services, financial counsellors and services for men who use violence and wish to change their behaviour. If you want, the Outreach Worker supporting you may be able to speak to these services on your behalf. If your first language is not English, the Outreach Worker can use an interpreter and may sometimes be able to help you find other support services in your own language.

Outreach Workers generally support women and children using this service for a period of a couple of weeks to a couple of months. They will ensure you are linked with other services that can give you any longer-term support you may need.

Specialist workers: This service includes an Outreach Worker who focuses on working with women and children in Wyndham, and another who workers with women and children in Brimbank/Melton, especially women who are attending the Sunshine Magistrates' court.

HOW TO CONTACT AN OUTREACH SERVICE

You can contact Women's Health West at any time for information and referral to Outreach Support and a range of other support services:

Send us a confidential email.
Call us for information and referral during business hours on 9689 9588.
If you need support outside business hours, call 9373 0123 or 1800 015 188.
If you need an interpreter, first call the Telephone Interpreter Service (24 hours) on 131 450. They will connect you with the service you want

FIND OUT MORE about specific services to which Women's Health West can refer women and children affected by family violence.

FIND OUT MORE about other services available in the Western Region and beyond through our Community Directory.