National Children’s Commissioner leads inaugural Queensland roundtable that raises the voices of children from CALD backgrounds impacted by family and domestic violence.
An exploration of the impact of domestic and family violence (DFV) on children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) family backgrounds will be the topic at a national round table hosted by not-for-profit Settlement Services International (SSI) and Myriad Kofkin Global in Logan, Queensland today.
Anne Hollands, Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner will lead the first in a series of state-based conversations designed to inform the Federal Government’s 10-Year National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children.
The insights gleaned from SSI’s series will culminate in a National Insights Report, which aims to influence optimal outcomes for CALD children and support the implementation of the National Plan’s underpinning five-year Action Plan, as well as identifying other policy levers across government and community sectors.
People with lived experience, members of Queensland’s multicultural community and experts from across settlement, children and youth, domestic and family violence services, government and academia will meet in a series of closed round table discussions in Logan, Sydney and Melbourne. Taking place from December to March, the discussions aim to surface gaps, discuss solutions and feed into local and national decision-making processes.
Dr Astrid Perry, SSI’s Head of Women, Equity and Domestic and Family Violence said, “It’s reassuring to see the government’s commitment to working towards equal access to services for victim-survivors.
“This series of roundtables will help delve further to acknowledge children and young people as victims and survivors of violence in their own right and bring to life through lived experience the impact of violence on young CALD lives.”
The National Plan can be accessed here https://www.dss.gov.au/ending-violence and outlines:
The cost of violence against women and their children is estimated at $26 billion per year.
Children exposed to domestic and family violence may experience trauma symptoms including PTSD. There may also be long-lasting effects on children’s development, behaviour and wellbeing.
In 2019–20, there were 376 hospitalisations of children aged zero to 14 for assault injuries perpetrated by a parent (277 hospitalisations) or other family member (99 hospitalisations).
Over the longer-term, children who are victims or witnesses of intimate partner violence can be twice as likely to have a psychiatric diagnosis, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and impaired language skills at age 10.
Recent longitudinal data showed that any exposure to domestic and family violence from infancy to 10 years was associated with poorer health outcomes.
The Queensland roundtable session “Meeting the needs of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in the context of domestic and family violence” takes place at 9:30am on 15 December 2022 at SSI Access offices, Logan, Queensland.
Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, it is not open to the general public; however, key spokespeople will be
