Interpersonal Violence DHB Toolkit

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Interpersonal Violence
DHB Toolkit

Date of publication: October 2001

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Summary

Many government and non-government agencies are working to reduce interpersonal violence. This toolkit outlines what the health and disability sector can do to help break the cycle of violence for victims and to reduce violence among children, young people and communities.

It is important for the health and disability sector to address interpersonal violence because it is:

common
associated with a significant burden of disease both in the short and long term, directly and indirectly. Victims of abuse seek health care at far greater rates not only for assault-related injuries but also for a range of other health effects
costly to individuals and to society.

Equally, addressing interpersonal violence can bring benefits as it is possible to:

influence young families, children and youth to develop personal skills that help to reduce violence
build supportive environments and strengthen community action in ways which help to reduce violence
intervene early thus preventing reoccurrence or serious harm. The health and disability sector, with its regular interface with the general population, is uniquely placed to intervene early
improve the way society responds to violence by better co-ordination with other agencies over individual cases and over development and funding of policies and programmes.

Some of the key statistics on violence are:

4 to 10 percent of New Zealand children experience physical abuse (average of 9 deaths a year), and approximately 18 percent experience sexual abuse
21 percent of New Zealand men said they had physically abused their female partners in the previous year
11 women a year die from assault
8 percent of school children experience persistent, very serious bullying
2 to 5 percent of older people are victims of elder abuse.

Reducing interpersonal violence is a priority objective in the New Zealand Health Strategy. This toolkit suggests the areas that might initially receive greater attention, through a mix of population strategies and family violence interventions.

Population strategies focus on:

public health services – violence prevention programmes for young families, children and youth in preschool and school, Māori or Pacific settings, public awareness campaigns, and community programmes to strengthen social capital and social cohesion
personal health, mental health or disability services – home visiting, help lines.

Family violence interventions are based on service protocols for the identification, assessment and referral of victims of child abuse, partner abuse and elder abuse. They entail personal health, mental health or disability services.

District Health Boards are encouraged to reduce interpersonal violence by:

using population strategies to reduce violence
promoting institutional change to enable health and disability service providers to identify, assess and refer cases of violence.

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The publication is available in Word and PDF format below:

Interpersonal Violence Toolkit (Word, 501 KB)
Interpersonal Violence Toolkit (PDF, 621 KB)

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Family Violence