The National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA) at Flinders University has developed two resource kits to improve the ability of alcohol and other drug (AOD) workers to detect and respond to family and domestic violence (FDV).

The kits, Can I ask….? and Breaking the Silence, address the little understood association between AOD and FDV – both of major concern to police and health and welfare agencies – and provide information and strategies for working with people experiencing or using violence.

The issue is the subject of a Drug Action Week forum and workshop, being hosted today by NCETA at Flinders University Victoria Square.

Director of NCETA, Professor Ann Roche, said evidence is emerging indicating that both issues need to be addressed to improve outcomes for clients, their families and children.

“While alcohol and other drug problems don’t cause family and domestic violence, there are complex and intertwining links between the two issues,” Professor Roche said.

“International research suggests that between 40-80 per cent of clients of alcohol and other drug services have experienced family and domestic violence,” she said.

“In addition, between 4 and 40 per cent of clients of family and domestic violence programs have alcohol and other drug problems. This is why it is so important for alcohol and family violence services to respond effectively, particularly when the clients have children.

“There is considerable scope for alcohol and other drug treatment services and family and domestic violence agencies to work more effectively together to better meet the needs of clients who are parents and their children.”

Breaking the Silence and Can I ask…..? are available online at the NCETA website.