Disrupting pathways into family violence

Family violence – including familial child abuse and neglect and intimate partner violence - is a major public health and social issue. Determining effective preventive strategies is crucial. This requires a sound understanding of the causal pathways into family violence. There is growing evidence of causal links between early childhood trauma, mental illness and violent behaviours. Understanding these relationships and the underlying mechanisms provides novel insights into what we need to do differently to reduce family violence and disrupt the dominant intergenerational transmission pathways.

This forum will cover the Epidemiology – who is caught up in family violence, what are their characteristics, Causal pathways into family violence – the accumulating evidence regarding the role of early-life trauma and what this means for Effective individual, family and community-based strategies.

Our Speakers
Professor Leonie Segal, Research Chair, Health Economics and Social Policy, University of South Australia - Epidemiology of family violence and overview of options for intervening with a focus on early childhood.

Dr Jackie Amos, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Specialist Therapist, Children’s Services Unit, Centacare, Adelaide - Theory linking early childhood trauma and potential for family violence and implications for a new service delivery model.

John Mannion, Mental Health Commissioner, South Australia and Executive Director Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation - Promising community-based approaches to better meeting the needs of persons facing adversity and distress with a particular focus on engaging men.

Our Chair
Professor Claire Roberts (HDA Co-Convenor), NHMRC Leadership Fellow / Professor and Matthew Flinders Fellow / Group Leader, Pregnancy Health and Beyond Laboratory (PHaB Lab), College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University.