Workforce churn, fragmented referral processes and unpaid training time have been identified as some of the barriers stopping GPs from completing extra training in family and sexual violence care.
A lack of practice software interoperability is one “common barrier” to integrating specialist family and domestic violence services into general practice, an interim report on PHN initiatives has found.
More specifically, the report evaluates a pilot program delivered by 12 Primary Health Networks across the country which delivered subsidised family violence training to GP practices, employed a dedicated system navigator and facilitated networking events.
The interim review identified system navigators as being “critical enablers” of implementation and noted that there had been more than 8400 “meaningful interactions” recorded between navigators and primary care staff across 1100 practices.
“Primary care staff described them as approachable, responsive and a trusted first contact that provided post-training support, secondary consults and clear guidance about local referral pathways,” the report said.
“Interviewees emphasised that they provided readily available advice (by phone, email or in person) which improved their confidence to recognise and respond to [family, domestic and sexual violence] and enabled them to make warm referrals particularly in time-sensitive situations.”
Between July 2022 and April 2025, practices participating in the PHN program referred 1500 patients directly to specialist domestic violence services.
Around 95% of these referrals involved female victim-survivors, more than half of whom were in their 30s or 40s.
The report also emphasised the value of flexible training delivery to GPs.
The barriers to training which did exist were identified as being administrative and structural in nature.
“Interviewees reported workforce churn, particularly high GP turnover, as undermining the sustainability of practice capability improvements, and the time and financial costs of clinic closures for training as being a disincentive for participation and engagement with the … pilot,” the report read.
Related
“Fragmented referral processes and inconsistent communication between [domestic and family violence, sexual violence and child sexual abuse] services, as well as inconsistent feedback from specialist [family, domestic and sexual violence] services to GPs, were also common challenges, with GPs reporting they were often uncertain whether their referrals were received, actioned or closed.
“Finally, limited integration of referral tools in primary care clinical software was also reported as contributing to administrative burden and potential safety and medico-legal risks.”
Multiple PHN interviewees noted that the limited integration of practice software created additional work for GPs.
“So, I send my referrals, and they’re not integrated into a software unfortunately … if the referrals are integrated into a software, it should upload automatically so everybody can see this patient has a DV issue and it should be easy to integrate,” one GP is quoted as saying.
“It takes at least 10-15 minutes extra for me to actually work on them, which we don’t have time for, but because I’m working actively and I feel if services are available, they should be used and that’s why I take the extra time to do all this.”
The participating PHNs are: Brisbane South PHN, Central and Eastern Sydney PHN, Hunter New England and Central Coast PHN, Nepean Blue Mountains PHN, North Western Melbourne PHN, Western Victoria PHN, Adelaide PHN, in consortium with Country South Australia PHN, Australian Capital Territory PHN, Northern Territory PHN, Tasmania PHN and the Western Australia Primary Health Alliance, responsible for delivery of the pilot in Perth South PHN.
