More than half of all West Australian women and children who died by suicide in 2017 were known to the state government as victims of domestic violence.
That is the confronting conclusion drawn by a report on the connection between family and domestic violence and suicide in the state.
The research was led by Ombudsman Chris Field, and its findings have rung alarm bells for even experienced advocates like Alison Evans from the Centre for Women's Safety and Wellbeing.
"It's just such a terrible indictment," she said.
"When you're reading it, you know that it's an under-representation.
And while those figures are the most recent data of its kind available, there are fears the situation today could be even worse.
In total, 410 people died by suicide in WA in 2017. Among them were 124 women and children.
Of that group, 68 – or 56 per cent – were recorded as victims of domestic violence.
Abuse figures likely greater in reality
WA Police recorded 43 of them as victims, and a further 21 had family and domestic violence-related assaults recorded in emergency department or hospital records.
The remaining four had no contact with police, but had sought a restraining order.
The ombudsman agreed those figures were likely an under-representation, because of "the limitations of available information contained in the record of state government departments and authorities".
He also pointed to a "significant rise" in family and domestic violence reports to police over the last five years.
Over the last financial year, WA Police responded to an average of one family violence incident every 12 minutes.
Dr Evans said the figures matched with the experience of those working on the frontline.
"It's deeply disturbing when you have those conversations and you'll hear a mum talking about her daughter that has [died by] suicide years and years later, and how she knows in her bones that it's because of that impact and that she was never the girl that she once was," she said.
"So whatever the number is I think that it demands us to be thinking about what we need to do to respond better to that post-separation period."
Family and sexual violence a 'significant problem'
Minister for the Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence, Simone McGurk, said after five years in the job nothing surprised her.
"We have a significant problem with family, domestic and sexual violence in our community," she said.
"Having said that, we also need to realise that everyone in the community has a role to play in seeing signs of domestic violence or violence against women and in playing a role to stop it.
"This is urgent that people understand how this violence presents and what they can do, for instance, to put a neighbour in touch with a service provider, to reach out to a friend to get assistance who might not feel comfortable about doing that if they're experiencing domestic violence."
One of the key areas where advocates are hoping for change is in the year or two after victim-survivors leave a domestic violence situation.
Statistics contained in the report show the highest-risk period was in the months immediately after a woman's final report to police.
Nearly half of the suicides occurred in the first six months.
Beyond a year was when 42 per cent of the women and children took their lives.
"It seems quite cruel to me for us to not focus on that period," Dr Evans said.
"At the moment, we kind of end that path to safety just too soon, and we should be thinking about that two-years post separation.
"Currently I would say that it's not really a core pillar of our family and domestic violence response, and it absolutely should be.
"If you're trying to re-establish yourself in the community and you can't get any secure housing, then your kids can't have their playmates over and it's hard for the women to sort of re-engage … back into a stable community environment.
"We need to build it into our domestic and family violence response and that will support women and children to actually take those steps back into education, employment, housing."
Dr Evans said addressing those gaps would be crucial to achieving a national goal of ending violence against women and children within a generation.
Refuge takes on 'therapeutic' role
Ms McGurk said that was one of many areas the government was working on – having built a number of new refuges to create more places for women and children to stay.
"One of the new refuges is, for the first time, a therapeutic refuge and the idea of that is that victim survivors can stay in the refuge for a longer period of time, perhaps up to a year, and take the time to address some of the co-presenting issues," she said.
"That might be unaddressed trauma, might be drug and alcohol issues, might be mental health issues, there might be issues with their children that they can really start to settle there and really start to bring in those other services."
The minister said those changes were among many introduced by government, including:
- More than $150 million in extra funding
- Seventeen family and domestic violence response teams, bringing together police, child protection and domestic violence services
- A review of police protocols
- Funding to train first responders in spotting signs of domestic violence
- Funding services to help young people affected by domestic violence
Earlier this week the government announced $11 million in funding for 34 specialised officers to join those response teams over coming years.
"Unfortunately there's a lot of work to do but our government is getting on with it and I'm really confident that we're looking at innovative solutions to make sure that we give the best chance of women and children experiencing domestic violence to come forward and seek help," Ms McGurk said.
The report details the level of contact each of the women and children had with various parts of the government, including hospitals.
Of the 68 who died by suicide, 34 had been to a hospital emergency department within three months of their deaths.
Many also had histories of being admitted to hospital for self-harm and mental health concerns.
Chance to prevent victims 'falling through cracks'
The opposition's health and domestic violence spokesperson, Libby Mettam, said that showed an area where further efforts should be focused.
"This is about ensuring that those who present in hospitals with injury associated with family and domestic violence do not then fall through the cracks and are better supported in the community," she said.
"The risk that these women would then take their life is highlighted in the report and highlights the fact that women need to be further supported."
In his report, Mr Field said his data could not show whether opportunities for greater intervention were missed.
"Further, the data presented does not convey instances of good practice and high-quality support work provided by hard-working health professionals often working in traumatic, highly stressed and high workload environments," he wrote.
But the report did recommend the Department of Health consider how a 'trauma-informed approach' could be incorporated.
'We can and must do more'
In summarising his 378-page report, the ombudsman said there were clear opportunities for improvement.
"There is much good work being done by state government departments and agencies to prevent men's vile and criminal violence against women, and the trauma and tragedy that result from this violence, but we can and must do more," he wrote.
He also made nine recommendations, which have all been accepted by government, with many already underway.
Among them are for police to improve ways of identifying the person most in need of protection, and to distinguish between "coercive controlling violence and violence used in response to ongoing abuse".
Other recommendations included reviewing data, collecting better information and findings ways to reduce the risk of suicide among victim-survivors.
Questions over COVID-19 effect
The missing puzzle piece is what these figures look like today.
"COVID-19 has taken a toll on a lot of people and particularly around mental health and wellbeing," Dr Evans said.
"If you throw into that … what that might feel and look like if you're somebody experiencing domestic and family violence, and the impact of that ongoing fear, then I think you could probably safely say that if anything it would be worse now than it was then."
But Ms McGurk disagreed, pointing to the ever-changing understanding of family and domestic violence.
"One of the challenges with domestic violence is that the more we talk about it, it's quite likely that we will see reporting go up," she said.
"In relation to suicide, for instance, we know that this is a very complex issue and our understanding of the co-presenting issues in relation to suicide is growing all the time as well.
"So we need to be thorough in our research, evidence-based in our responses, determined in our effort, and that's what we're bringing to the table as a government in relation to combating domestic and family violence in Western Australia."
