Updated monthly, the MARAM Training Calendar lists all upcoming training for AOD clinicians, practitioners, team leaders, managers and CEOs. It also included foundational training in the dynamics of family violence and Information Sharing Schemes.

You can view and download it here.

Risk assessments with victim survivors - Safe and Equal

Risk Assessments help us understand the level of risk experienced by the victim survivor we're working with – what does best practice look?

The MARAM Practice Guides for working with victim survivors places performing Risk Assessments as core business for AOD clinicians (see Responsibility 3). Which questions should we be asking our clients when identifying risk within their story? How do we assess the level of risk, and what is its evidence base?

What does applying a Structured Professional Judgement look like, and what can we ask to ensure we’re embedding an intersectional analysis into our inclusive practice? When should we use the Brief tool, instead of the Intermediate?

The session was led by Liz Yared and Ellen McGregor from Safe+Equal, the peak body for specialist family violence services that provide support to victim survivors in Victoria

View the recording

Shifting Landscapes - Building the Holistic Treatment Mosaic

 9 -10 February 2023
Pullman Melbourne on the Park Hotel

Registration

Registration for the conference is now open! Early bird registrations are open from now until the beginning of December. Click here for pricing and registration.

Sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities 

For sponsorship (including gold, silver and bronze packages) and exhibitor opportunities, please contact the Conference Committee, at conference@vaada.org.au  

Service deliverers are becoming increasingly aware that to deal with consumer needs and complexity effectively, a holistic approach can bring significant benefits.  The recent Royal Commissions into Victoria’s Mental Health System and Family Violence have prioritised reform headlined by holistic approaches.  This includes implementing reforms to embrace the intersection of multiple issues and the means to address them.

The Victorian Community based AOD system sits at a crossroads with many of the issues faced by other sectors and often with shared consumers.

VAADA’s 2023 Conference, Shifting landscapes – Building the holistic treatment mosaic is VAADA's first state wide sector conference since 2019.  It will seek to unpack the many issues impacting our Victorian AOD system and our cross-sectoral colleagues.  We are looking to consider the importance of mutually shared problems and approaches, including the sort of collaboration that can make a difference.

Elevate! 

The Victorian Government has provided support to VAADA to administer a fully-funded, centralised workforce development program for the AOD sector until December 2022. This training and professional development program - Elevate! - is available to all AOD workforce currently employed within funded AOD services across Victoria. 

Upcoming live training you may be interested in:

• Wed 7 Dec - Take Note! Case Notes Essentials for the Alcohol and Other Drugs Sector
• Wed 7 Dec - 1-day Workshop: Cultural Bridging Workshop with Robyne Latham
• Wed 7 Dec - Trauma and Harm Reduction in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples
• Thur 8 Dec - 2-day: Identifying and Responding to Family Violence Risk and MARAM with Young People
• Wed 14 Dec - 1-day Workshop: Cultural Bridging Workshop with Robyne Latham

New self-paced eLearns:

• Supervisee Training for the AOD sector
• AOD Worker Wellbeing
• Introduction to Trauma Informed Care

Click here to view all training

Advanced MARAM workshop: Advanced Case Notes and Documentation in a Family Violence Context

The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare have opened more spaces in 2023 for their advanced MARAM workshop, Advanced Case Notes and Documentation in a Family Violence Context.

Learning objectives: 

• Use your case notes to keep the person using violence in view
• Use your case notes to help other practitioners build the victim-survivor's capacity
• Align terminology with MARAM’s evidence base
• Write case notes that may be used in future legal proceedings
• Understand how a V/S may view the notes in future years
• How various documentation frameworks intersect with MARAM

To register for these sessions, log-in via the Centre for Excellence LMS or complete this EOI and their team will make you a profile and send you instructions with how to register. 

Unsure which MARAM training is right for you? Consult the MARAM training decision tree.

To end gender-based violence in one generation, we must fix how the system responds to children and young people

"There’s a crucial part of the story you might have missed: how and why the [National] plan acknowledges children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right, and what needs to happen next." Read more on The Conversation.

Victim-survivors unsafe, unsupported at family violence courts, say community legal centres

"Eastern Community Legal Centre Principal Lawyer Belinda Lo fears many other victim-survivors of family violence will be left unsafe and unsupported at seven new specialist family violence courts due to a funding shortfall." Read more on The ABC.

How ‘closing the gap’ may close doors for First Nations women in new plan to end violence

"The current proposed alignment between Closing the Gap and the National Plan... linking the two plans could potentially limit access to family violence services for First Nations women seeking help." Read more on The Conversation.

Criminalising coercive control isn’t the answer to DV

"A large part of the problem that victim-survivors have with police is that police officers seem to regularly – some might say almost routinely – “misidentify” victims as perpetrators." Read more on The Monthly.

Rape case against Victorian police officer collapses in blow to force’s new family violence unit

"Prosecutors said there was not a reasonable chance of conviction in case, brought by taskforce hailed as Australian-first" Read more on The Guardian. 

MARAM Person Using Violence Guides: What Now? Web Series

All recordings for No To Violence's webinar series -  "What Now?" - are now available to view online. These webinars were designed and delivered to help workforces familiarise themselves with the MARAM Practice Guides for working with adults using violence. These webinars do not place any upcoming MARAM training. Click here for more information.

NTV: Updated Referral Pathways

No To Violence have updated their referral pathways for working with people using violence. The update to their resource page also includes two new helpful documents:

• Types of program referrals – a table with different types of program referrals and conversation prompts
• Making specialist referrals for people using violence – tips on making referrals when working with adult clients who are using violence

For more information, see their Referral pathways resource page and click on the “Referral Pathways General Information” drop-down banner. The page also includes a map/list of relevant referral services. 

Specialist Family Violence Advisers Capacity Building Program Fact Sheet

No to Violence has created a helpful fact sheet to explain and promote the roles and responsibilities of the Victorian Specialist Family Violence Advisors. You can view/download here. 

ANROWS Webinar: Family law parenting orders, breaches and their impact on children

If you missed attending the live webinar, or would like to revisit this important conversation, the recording is now available on the ANROWS website.

ANROWS Report:  Economic security and intimate partner violence

This synthesis focuses on the nexus of women’s safety and women’s economic security. Read more and download.

If in doubt, remember to consult the MARAM Navigator on the VAADA website, or reach out to your Specialist Family Violence Advisers for a consult. 

MARAM and Information Sharing

Contact the Information Sharing and MARAM Enquiry Line for practice and policy guidance.

• 1800 549 646 (10am-2pm, Mon-Fri)

Contact the Specialist Family Violence Adviser in your area

• See the VAADA website for contact details

Contact us if you're unsure and we'll help refer you; familyviolence@vaada.org.au