Recommended reading

This report provides a broad outline of areas of family violence, such as child, intimate partner and elder abuse. An overview is provided of some of the pertinent issues surrounding these types of abuse, including prevalence, incidence, consequences, and risk and protective factors. This report highlights that to fully address family violence, interventions must go beyond the individual and the family to include recognition of community and societal factors. From a health perspective, this report identifies a number of gaps - perceived or otherwise - in the research, approaches and responses to family violence in New Zealand. These gaps must be explored, assessed and evaluated to ensure programme accountability. Theoretical frameworks to address violence are discussed as the author combines the Ecological Model and the Coordinated Community Action Model to produce a new integrated conceptual initiative. This three-dimensional model proposes a multi-levelled intersectoral approach to eliminating family violence. Finally, this report suggests that a collaborative approach, integrating research, policy, advocacy and practice will sustain family violence prevention strategies in the long-term.