Symposium inspires collaboration to address mental health and violence against women and children
Professor Aron Shlonsky, Dr Chelsea Tobin, Professor Martin Foley, Micaela Cronin, Professor Jane Fisher AO, Professor Megan Galbally, Professor Jayashri Kulkarni
Monash University recently hosted the Mental Health and Violence Against Women and Children Symposium, an event exploring the relationship between mental health and wellbeing and the perpetration and repercussions of violence against women and children.
The symposium was hosted by Monash Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Practice Professor Martin Foley, who shared the faculty’s commitment to addressing the issues following the development of its Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2024-2030, which identified collaboration and incorporating the lived and living experience of victim/survivors, families and carers, among its key priorities.
Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) and Senior Vice-President Professor Mike Ryan gave an opening statement reflecting on Monash University’s significant research capability in the space, with 40 Monash-led research collaborative projects currently in progress, including the ARC Centre for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the world’s first centre to address the full range of forms of violence against women in Australia and the Indo-Pacific region.
Professor Aron Shlonsky from Monash Social Work also facilitated a Q&A with keynote speaker Micaela Cronin, the Australian Government’s Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner, who encouraged attendees to hold onto the fact that violence against women is a “solvable problem that can be stopped.” Commissioner Cronin shared insights into the Commission’s work in promoting and supporting the achievement of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2032, and holding all Australian governments accountable to its objectives. Listening to the intelligence and wisdom of people with lived experience is key to the Commission’s work, including the specific experiences of children and young people, as lived experience insights are vital to shaping the pathway forward, and alerting experts and policymakers when they are veering off-track, or implementing interventions that may cause inadvertently cause harm. Commissioner Cronin also said that universities play a vital role in gathering much-needed evidence that tells the story about the problem and shines a light on the best solutions.
A panel of guest experts also shared ideas and knowledge gained from their specific areas of practice across the health and community sectors and academia.
Panel experts included:
- Dr Chelsea Tobin, CEO of Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre
- Professor Jane Fisher AO, Chief Investigator for the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW) and Professor of Global Health in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
- Professor Megan Galbally, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health and Director of the Centre for Women’s and Children’s Mental Health and Program Director for Mental Health at Monash Health
- Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, Founder and Director of HER Centre Australia and the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre
- Professor Ingrid Ozols AM, Adjunct Professor in the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health and advocate, educator and leader in the Consumer, Lived experience sector and range of professional, advocacy, education, research and workplace reforms
During the discussion, Dr Tobin reinforced the vital role universities can play in providing evidence to inform funding applications and best practice on the ground, and recommended research approaches that are intersectional and holistic. Professor Ozols strongly highlighted the need to ask people with lived experience of mental health and violence about what they need and want, and that educating the workforce and community is also critical. Professor Galbally spoke of the need for the entire health workforce to be upskilled in assessing for and responding to violence as a core part of their clinical practice, while Professor Fisher recommended gender-informed early parenting education that challenges harmful gender stereotypes and encourages respectful family relationships. Professor Kulkarni also advocated for the recognition of trauma as the biggest driver of mental health issues in women and children who experience violence and encouraged researchers to enter into cross-disciplinary collaborations, such as with data science, design and infrastructure, to approach the problem from all different angles.
Professor Foley said that the symposium was a great initiative that proved the ability of Monash researchers to build alliances and form collaborations that can drive real change. “The work that Monash does across all its work in the mental health and wellbeing and family, domestic and sexual violence fields leads the nation,” he said. “The opportunities to continue to drive outcomes that will make women, children and young people safer has never been more needed and more within reach.”
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
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