No to Violence, the peak body delivering safe and effective interventions for Australian men using family violence, expects a significant increase in calls to its Men’s Referral Service Helpline (1300 766 491) during the COVID-19 outbreak.

A surge in family violence was experienced in China, Italy and France as part of lockdown experience and we fully expect the same in Australia.

For more than 25 years, No to Violence has been working with men who use family violence.  During this pandemic, we want to help anyone who will come in to contact with men who use violence, to keep communities safe. We can swiftly train medical staff, pharmacists, police, prisons, teachers and childcare workers, supermarket workers and bank staff to understand how to identify risk and refer on. We can support helplines aimed at other issues including financial or mental health issues.

We are standing by. Ready to scale up. Ready to partner nationally and at local state and territory level. We have developed a series of proposal to help deal with the crisis during this pandemic, and set up our society up to emerge from this crisis with workforces that have improved their family violence understanding and equip them better for a future beyond COVID-19.

CEO of No To Violence, Ms Jacqui Watt is available for media commentary on:

• Detailing its proposed plan of action submitted to the Australian Government on April 1
• Updates on how the situation is unfolding in terms of calls to NTV’s Men’s Referral Service and other family violence impacts
• Expert media commentary and/or interviews on Australia’s family violence incidence

What is needed now

Support/funding/rapid upscaling to:

• Increase the Men’s Referral Service HELPLINE capacity to a national service by increasing funding to:
   – extend service provision hours
   – expand into other states and/or build a truly national focus
   – process more police referrals
• Meet demand for increases in male family violence sector support Australia-wide
• Time-limited telephone-based case management service
• Workforce development to increase trained support
• Establish a workplace focused risk and safety advice service
• Rapid deployment of a remote working toolkit 

Background/topics/expertise

No to Violence specialises in effective evidence-informed engagement with men and its primary concern is the safety and wellbeing of women and children. 

At NTV we have successfully worked to develop safe and effective interventions for men using domestic and family violence (DFV) for over 25 years.

No to Violence provides telephone counselling, workplace development and training, policy advice and advocacy to end men’s use of family violence. 

As the only national peak in this space, NTV does three things:

• Talk with men every day on their helpline Men’s Referral Service: 1300 766 491. This is funded in three states but is needed and used by men who use DFV across the country.
• Support members – over 150 organisations and professionals – to deliver best practice, working face-to-face to the highest professional and safety standards. No To Violence provides training and workforce development for professionals across a range of industries and  sectors, who  need to develop skills in identifying, interrupting and responding to men’s use of domestic and family violence.
• Provide evidence-informed interventions and advice to all levels of government across Australia from local and state governments to federal committees.