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Rapid Child Safety Review

child safety, policy
2025

This review calls for urgent reforms in early childhood education, including a national worker register, stronger screening, and improved inspections and centre environments. It also recommends overhauling the Working with Children Check and Reportable Conduct Scheme and enhancing workforce support and parental transparency.

Decoding Aggression, Complex Behaviours and Brain-Based Disabilities: Practical Strategies for Addressing Aggression Within the Family System

adolescent violence, Neurodivergence

Families and caregivers facing aggression from children and adolescents often feel isolated, misunderstood, and unsure of where to turn. This groundbreaking clinical manual provides a comprehensive, neuroscience-informed approach to understanding and addressing Aggression Toward Family/Caregivers in Childhood and Adolescence (AFCCA). Written by Dr. Maude Champagne, RSW, MSW, PhD, with contributions from leading experts in neurodevelopmental disorders, trauma, and therapeutic interventions, this manual offers evidence-based strategies, real-life case studies, and practical tools for professionals.

Silence and Inaction: Children and young people’s experience of violence and systemic failure in South Australia

domestic and family violence
2025

This study was commissioned as part of the South Australian Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence to examine the experiences of children and young people who have lived through violence and navigated support systems in South Australia. Drawing on interviews with 53 children and young people aged 13–18 years old, the Silence and Inaction report presents the voices of those whose perspectives are too often absent from policy, service design, and systems reform efforts.

Evaluation of the Play Therapy Program

CEDV, FVSV, mental health, play therapy
2025

This independent evaluation assessed the effectiveness, impact, and sustainability of Refuge Victoria's Play Therapy Program.

‘Making financial abuse visible: Embedding women’s and children’s voices in policymaking and research’

CEDV, domestic and family violence, FVSV
2025

By bringing together perspectives spanning advocacy, service organisations, and researchers working in the field of financial abuse prevention and intervention, this white paper shows the gaps in current data collection tools, such as the personal safety survey (ABS, 2024). The paper also discusses who needs to have a seat at the table in future data collection and research design.

Safety Measures – Making sense of domestic and family violence service demand, capacity and impact

domestic and family violence
2025

Specialist services have been advocating for stronger data and evidence to improve system and service design. While we have a growing picture of the problem of violence, we don’t have a clear understanding of the system’s capacity to respond. Safety Measures is an innovative new sense-making program, led by six organisations across the Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria, that aims to build a holistic picture of people’s support needs and experiences and inform more responsive, inclusive and evidence-based decision making about DFV service provision.

Child-To-Parent Violence is the Canary in the Coal Mine: Associations with Experiences of Violence in Adulthood

adolescent violence, domestic and family violence
2025

Child-to-Parent violence (CPV) may generalise into other relationships later in life. Study participants showed CPV was positively associated with experience (i.e. as perpetrator or victim) of recent violence as an adult, including physical, sexual, and verbal violence, as well as intimidation, across a variety of contexts (home, work, transport, and licensed venues). These associations interacted with gender. CPV in adolescence may be an important secondary prevention target to interrupt the progression of violence across the lifespan.

Instrumental and Reactive Motives in Context of Online Addictive Behaviors

adolescent violence
2025

This study examines the relationship between online addictive behaviors—specifically problematic internet use, gaming, and online gambling—and child-to-parent violence (CPV), a strong indicator of parental aggression. It also investigates how reactive and instrumental reasons for CPV serve as mediating mechanisms in this relationship.

The School Can’t Experience: Executive Function at School

Neurodivergence
2025

Emma Brooksby, who has ADHD and a background as a school principal, shares her journey and offers insights into how executive function challenges manifest in educational settings and ways to support students who have executive function challenges.

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