Health practitioners, such as general practitioners (GP's) need more training to help domestic violence victims, according to a report published by the Medical Journal of Australia.
The report says GP's are a good first port of call for domestic violence victims because they often have good, trusting relationships with each other.
Weighing in on the issue, NZ College of GPs medical director Bryan Betty says New Zealand has a serious domestic violence problem and frontline health practitioners need to be better equipped.
"We need to be looking at the training and support of our frontline medical workers in the community.
"We need to really start to think about what's needed to provide time, to provide a safe environment for patients to interact with their GP or their practice and know that's done with trust and confidence and confidentiality," he said.
According to Good Shepherd NZ, New Zealand is the worst ranked country for family violence in the OECD.
Family violence has also increased 60% over the past five years and is predicted to increase by a further 35% by 2025.
Betty says often victims present with symptoms that may look like anxiety depression rather than domestic violence.
"So if we do have a suspicion domestic or family violence is an issue, actually asking in a safe way is really, really important.
"So simple questions like 'do you feel safe at home at the moment?' just to try and open up a conversation and allow us to tape into that and reassuring the patient that anything we discuss is confidential."
New Zealand has a project called Atawhai which is a three year Health Research Council initiative run by AUT which looks at these issues, Betty said.
The project also looks at any policies necessary to ensure family violence is being dealt with effectively.
Betty said the responsibility is on the GP to initiate a discussion with the patient if they suspect they’re a victim of domestic violence and to ensure there’s a safe environment to do so.
Asked if GP's have the time and resources to take on training about how to deal with victims of domestic violence victims on top of an already stretched health system, Betty said it's one of his biggest concerns.
"Because we're so focused on things like Covid, influenza, those acute problems, these other issues tend to get squeezed out.
"Even just direct access to your GP is difficult at the moment so it's one of the things I think we need to think about as a system, how we free up time, how we free up bandwidth so that people feel confident and are safe and are given time to talk about these incredibly difficult issues," he said.
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