Recognising and Responding to Sexual Violence in Adults

Are you a healthcare professional in Australia supporting patients who may have experienced sexual violence? This training has been designed specifically for you.

Recognising and Responding to Sexual Violence in Adults, developed by Monash University’s Department of Forensic Medicine with consultation from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, equips health practitioners with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to appropriately recognise and respond to adult disclosures of sexual violence.

Funded by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032, the program has been running since 2021 and will continue until 2027.

This CPD-accredited training is available at no cost to AHPRA-registered and Australia-based health practitioners providing primary health care services.

Priority will be given to practitioners working in rural and remote areas and those serving communities at higher risk of experiencing sexual violence, including:

• People with disabilities
• Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• LGBTQIA+ communities
• Older adults
• Adolescents
• Sex workers

The course consists of three units, featuring a patient-centred curriculum that recognises and addresses the risk of vicarious trauma for health practitioners in caring for victim/survivors of sexual violence. The training is designed to be practical and evidence-based, and includes various resources developed by specialist forensic medical practitioners to help translate learning into everyday clinical practice.

The units are developed as stand-alone units, so can be completed as a training suite and also in any order.

Who should attend?

This training is open to all AHPRA registered clinicians who would like to improve their skill set in being better prepared for providing best medical care for victim/survivors of sexual violence.

Information on our online training

Each unit is self-paced learning delivered online over a six-week period and includes two online workshops with clinicians with expertise in responding to sexual violence. The online course content is rich in additional resources, where participants are encouraged to expand their reading and participate in discussions during the online workshops and online discussion forums.

Information on our face-to-face training

Each unit is delivered as a one day 7-hour intensive workshop. Workshops focus on applying active learning strategies to maximise engagement with information, other local participants, and facilitators who create meaningful learning experiences. This delivery mode is only available for Responding to Adult Disclosures of Sexual Violence and The Intersectionality of Sexual Violence.

Units

Accreditation