MEDIA RELEASE 8 October 2012

DHB Comes Tops Again In Anti-Violence Programme

Waitemata District Health Board has placed first again in the country for its programmes to detect and address partner and child abuse.

For the second year running, the DHB has achieved the highest overall score in the Government’s Violence Intervention Programme (VIP). VIP was instituted by the Ministry of Health to help reduce the impacts of family violence through early identification and referral of cases presenting to health services.

“We are very proud of this achievement, as it underscores our commitment to responding to family violence and providing intervention and support across our communities,” says Waitemata DHB chief executive Dr Dale Bramley. “Having robust systems and processes that enable our people to identify abuse early is critical to protecting children and partners from further harm.” All 20 DHBs in the country take part in VIP, which measures responsiveness, support and service delivery in the area of family violence prevention.

For the 2011/12 year, Waitemata achieved a score of 100 (out of 100) for its child protection programmes, and 96 (out of 100) for its partner abuse screening regime. This was a further improvement on the table topping 2010/11 performance, where the DHB achieved 98 and 96 respectively for its programmes addressing child abuse and partner abuse.

Waitemata’s general manager of child, women and family services, Linda Harun, says the DHB has a strong leadership focus on preventing family violence, with 40 champions appointed across the organisation’s community and acute healthcare services.

“Our network of champions ensures that there is a consistent focus at the individual service level to identify and refer cases of suspected abuse.”

Ms Harun says the DHB also works with various local government and non-government organisations, including local refuges and victim support agencies, to provide support and referrals.

“A big part of our success is the many strong relationships we have with local government services and specialist agencies.”

ENDS

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