Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs Inquiry into the relationship between domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) and suicide

In this submission, Safe and Equal draws upon available data and literature, insights from our member services, consultation with survivor advocates and our knowledge and expertise in family and gender-based violence in the national and Victorian context.

This submission is structured in four parts. First, we highlight how experiences of family violence can contribute to suicide risk. We then discuss how systemic failings caused by under resourced services designed to support victim survivors of family violence can contribute to and exacerbate suicide risk, particularly in the areas of mental health, housing, financial security and systems abuse. We conclude this part by making some recommendations for how these systems can be improved. We then address opportunities to improve responses to victim survivors of family violence at risk of suicide through increased collaboration and coordinated risk assessments between specialist family violence and mental health services. Finally, we discuss data related to the prevalence of family violence related suicide and ways to increase understanding of the issue through improved data collection.

Family violence-related suicides must be a state and national priority. Too many lives have been lost and the full extent of family violence experienced by people who die by suicide remains largely unseen and unrecorded.