Sexual and Family Violence (SAFE)

Our Research

The lived-expertise of victim-survivors is at the centre of all our work. We work to improve the safety, health and well-being of families and communities by addressing domestic, family, sexual and reproductive violence through the health system.

Our research focuses on understanding dynamics of abuse, and the links between violence and health to inform development and testing of early identification and response interventions for women, children, young people and men.

We lead three centres:

	RESTORE Centre to create new pathways to healing for victim-survivors of adult sexual violence.
	Safer Families Centre to transform health system responses to domestic and family violence.
	Centre for Family Violence Prevention at the Royal Women’s Hospital, to build a whole-of-health-system response to family, domestic and sexual violence in the hospital setting.

Our Objectives

• Explore the definition, prevalence, risk factors, natural history, health consequences and lived-experience of abuse and violence across the lifecycle and different cohorts;
• Champion meaningful ethical engagement of victim-survivors in co-designing research, teaching, training and evaluation.
• Explore experiences of abuse and violence among the health workforce;
• Develop, implement and evaluate:
  • Screening, early intervention and therapeutic responses to domestic, family, sexual and reproductive violence;
  • Innovative engagement using online tools to respond to abuse and violence;
  • Trauma and violence informed models of care;
  • Training programs for practitioners and other staff in the health sector;
  • Teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels;
• Work collaboratively with community groups, victim-survivors, local, state and national governments and professional bodies to exchange knowledge and advocate for change based on evidence.

We are affiliated with the Melbourne Research Alliance to End Violence Against Women and their Children (MAEVe).