Behaviour programs can curb the cycle of domestic violence – so why are hundreds of Australian men on waiting lists?
In the Bega Valley shire, the closest in-person accredited program is in Canberra, around a three-hour drive away. Photograph: Con Chronis/AAP
David knew carrying out violence against his family was wrong. But it was a 20-week court-mandated program that taught him how to change his behaviour.
After David – who asked not to use his full name – pleaded guilty to a domestic and family violence offence, he was given an intervention and community correction order. The sentence prevented him from contacting his family for 18-months.
“I was initially resistant to [the order to take a program], I didn’t think I needed it,” he says of the program. “Then around week four or five in, it hit me like a brick wall … I realised I hadn’t totally accepted responsibility until then.”
Men’s behaviour change programs like the one David attended are not a “magical solution”, but are a crucial part of a complex puzzle in preventing and stemming reoffending of domestic and family violence, say people who work with domestic violence perpetrators. But hundreds of men across the country remain on waiting lists to get into programs, and some miss out completely.
And the services are dwindling. At the start of this month, Victoria’s magistrates court – which funds services to deliver the court mandated counselling program for men in the state – released a statement saying it was reviewing its program and would work with providers in the transition.
“There simply aren’t enough of them,” Elisabeth Shaw says, the chief executive of the New South Wales arm of Relationships Australia that has a 245-long waitlist for its programs.
“I think magistrates and judges are very frustrated by this too, because they may make orders that you have to go and do a program and then the person comes back and says ‘I simply couldn’t get into one’.”
What the programs are like
The programs work by educating men to recognise their violence and help them develop strategies to change the behaviour. They also have an associated support service for the victim-survivors of perpetrators in the program.
Some of the attendees are mandated by the courts, but its also a crucial part of preventing the violence from happening in the first place, Shaw says.
Shaw says many of the men in the program are referred or voluntary attend before they’ve reached the justice system.
David says when he received his community corrections order, he was told by the magistrate that if he breached it, he’d risk landing in prison for his offences. Having to appear in court and face up to what he’d done felt like enough to stop the violence – but the program ended up being a crucial pillar.
He attended group sessions for an hour and a half a week alongside other men and had four one-on-on sessions with a facilitator. He says many of the men at first seemed to feel the same resistance he felt about being there, but opened up more as time went on.
The 16 men sat in a horseshoe shape, and went through sessions on topics like emotional regulation, and how they’re behaviour impacts those around them. They were also invited to tell their stories.
“Without [the program], I wouldn’t have understood how to change my behaviour, [and] change my communication,” he says.
[Men] … can’t be left to stew in their holding cells and potentially come out only to lash out worse
Vesna Andric
During the 20 weeks his family was also receiving specialist support as part of the program.
In the eight months since completing the program, David has not reoffended, and has been seeing a psychologist weekly to work through PTSD which affected his behaviour.
He’s also asked Family Life, where he completed the program, if they’d consider running an extension course for men like him who want to learn more.
Problems with access
Programs like the one David attended are not always easily accessible, particularly in regional areas. There is the option to attend online, but even then, the wait can be months.
“There’s far more areas that have no services, than those that do,” Shaw says.
In the Bega Valley shire, the closest in-person accredited program is in Canberra, around a three-hour drive away. A local organisation, Sapphire Neighbourhoods Services, will soon be accredited to run the first program in the region, but can’t apply for government funding until July next year.
Vesna Andric, who works with the Staying Home Leaving Violence project in the Bega region, says waiting for such a program to start in the area is making her work helping victim-survivors harder. She sometimes sees men who have been convicted of domestic violence in the past carrying out abuse again against a different women and children.
“That cycle of violence just continues,” she says.
She says having such a program would help men who recognise that their behaviour could escalate to violence avoid offending in the first place. She also argues men should be mandated to attend once their violent behaviour is flagged with police.
“They [men who have been arrested for violence] need some sort of rehabilitation, they can’t be left to stew in their holding cells and potentially come out only to lash out worse.”
When Victoria’s magistrates court said it was reviewing its program, it noted 4% of respondents to family violence intervention orders are mandated to attend counselling, but only half complete the program. It said it also doesn’t go far enough to reach diverse communities.
The services running the programs say they were only told by the courts that funding for current programs would cease from July. Karina Joy, who runs the court mandated counselling program in Ballarat, where the community has been reeling from a number of gender violence related deaths, says the decision was “gut wrenching” for the community.
She says it hasn’t been made clear how long the review will take or when the programs will be back up and running.
“It’s a great opportunity to sit back and reflect on what’s working and come up with something better, but to have the funding pulled without consultation or without something else to fill the gap is concerning,” she says.
Stopping the cycle of violence
There has been little research done into the effectiveness on men’s behaviour change programs in Australia, but UK research on a similar program found most men do take steps forward to change their behaviour, some more than others.
Shaw says a common problem in the bid for more funding is services are often told they need more evidence to back up the program. However the services aren’t funded enough to do the long-term studies needed to build up that evidence.
She says the program checks in on the men in the two months after they complete the program, and says it has the most success with perpetrators who’ve carried out physical abuse. It’s harder to shift those who’ve committed abuse such as coercive control, she says.
David still has a few months left on the intervention order, which stops him from seeing his family. He says it’s up to them whether or not they want to see him when it ends.
“All I can hope for is that if we do get to talk that I then have got something to offer, that I have seriously reformed and changed.”
• In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org