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Nature and extent of gender-based violence in individualised disability support & aged care services in Victoria : scoping study report for Worksafe Victoria Sara Charlesworth, Fiona Macdonald and Jane Clarke

By: Charlesworth, Sara.
Contributor(s): Macdonald, Fiona | Clarke, Jane.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: Melbourne, Vic : Centre for People, Organisation & Work, RMIT University, 2020Description: electronic document (45 pages) ; PDF file.Subject(s): Centre for People, Organisation & Work, RMIT University | ATTITUDES | DISABLED PEOPLE | HEALTH SERVICES | HOME-BASED CARE | OLDER PEOPLE | SAFETY | VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN | WORKFORCE | WORKPLACE VIOLENCE | INTERNATIONAL | AUSTRALIA | VICTORIAOnline resources: Click here to access online Summary: This scoping study, conducted for WorkSafe Victoria, reports on available evidence on the nature and extent of gender-based violence in individualised disability support and aged care services in Victoria. The study also explores what is known about the circumstances in which working conditions may provide a context for gender-based violence. WorkSafe Victoria has identified work-related gendered violence as ‘any behaviour, directed at any person, or that affects a person, because of their sex, gender or sexual orientation, or because they do not adhere to socially prescribed gender roles, that creates a risk to health and safety’.1In disability support and aged care services, a gender-based violence perspective is particularly useful as the majority of the frontline workforce are women and much of the work undertaken in this sector is profoundly undervalued as it is assumed to be women’s work and thus ‘unskilled’. Where work is undertaken in private domestic settings, workers’ vulnerability is likely to be heightened. Violence and abuse experienced by both service users and workers in home-based and community care and support services for the aged and people with disability is not a new phenomenon. Historically such violence and abuse has been significantly under-reported and its nature and prevalence under-researched. Focusing on gender-based violence, this study explores recent Australian evidence about the potential of these structural changes to exacerbate existing worker health and safety risks and further contribute to challenges faced by regulators and workers in services located outside institutional settings. The scoping study did not involve a systemic review of scholarly literature and international publications. (From the Executive summary). Record #6998
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Access online Access online Family Violence library
Online Available ON21010039

Publised October 2020

This scoping study, conducted for WorkSafe Victoria, reports on available evidence on the nature and extent of gender-based violence in individualised disability support and aged care services in Victoria. The study also explores what is known about the circumstances in which working conditions may provide a context for gender-based violence. WorkSafe Victoria has identified work-related gendered violence as ‘any behaviour, directed at any person, or that affects a person, because of their sex, gender or sexual orientation, or because they do not adhere to socially prescribed gender roles, that creates a risk to health and safety’.1In disability support and aged care services, a gender-based violence perspective is particularly useful as the majority of the frontline workforce are women and much of the work undertaken in this sector is profoundly undervalued as it is assumed to be women’s work and thus ‘unskilled’. Where work is undertaken in private domestic settings, workers’ vulnerability is likely to be heightened. Violence and abuse experienced by both service users and workers in home-based and community care and support services for the aged and people with disability is not a new phenomenon. Historically such violence and abuse has been significantly under-reported and its nature and prevalence under-researched. Focusing on gender-based violence, this study explores recent Australian evidence about the potential of these structural changes to exacerbate existing worker health and safety risks and further contribute to challenges faced by regulators and workers in services located outside institutional settings. The scoping study did not involve a systemic review of scholarly literature and international publications. (From the Executive summary). Record #6998

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