Whittlesea CALD Communities Family Violence Research Report 2012 | Page 36
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For non-specialist agencies the most common referral pathways for CALD clients were self referrals
through word of mouth in the community and secondary referrals from other agencies (e.g.
settlement services).
Most service providers were not able to provide detailed information about who the victim first
disclosed family violence to or whether their service was the first point of disclosure beyond general
observations that women are more likely to disclose family violence to someone they trust and this
is likely to be someone within their own family or community.
It was a general observation made by service providers that CALD clients were more likely to have
been in contact with police prior to accessing services than non-CALD clients. This was attributed to
the fact that CALD clients are likely to be have less familiarity with family violence and other support
services and may only become aware of these services through contact with police rather than
through other avenues such as the family violence crisis line.
Barriers to Accessing Services
Service providers were asked to identify and discuss whether, in their experience, CALD clients face
additional barriers to seeking assistance with family violence when compared with the mainstream
population.
Service providers emphasised that it is difficult to draw generalisations about CALD clients and
barriers to accessing services because ‘CALD’ describes such a diverse range of backgrounds and
experiences. A person’s ability to access services is also likely to be influenced by other factors such
as level of education, class, age, amount of time spent in Australia as well as country of origin and
region (for example, a person who comes from an urban area may have vastly different experiences
from a person who comes from a rural area).
Despite these differences, analysis of the data drawn from consultations with service providers
revealed that there were a number of common barriers identified as hindering the ability of CALD
clients to access assistance with family violence. (Refer to p.17 for a detailed description of the
barriers CALD women experience)
Immigration Status
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