Our big call for action. We call on the Australian Government, through the National Strategy Advisory Group of National Office for
Child Safety, to work with the Victorian, and all State and Terriority Governments, to implement in full the Royal Commission Recommendation 9.1. By acknowledging the prevalence and impact of child sexual abuse in Australia is a national public health emergency.

Given the recent evidence on the shocking prevalence and impact of child sexual abuse, we call on the Australian Government to acknowledge that provision of an integrated model of health and care for adult survivors and communities impacted by child sexual abuse, requires piloting place-based model of integrated care for all citizens in a region.

Key points

• 28% of Australians aged 16–65 and over have experienced child sexual abuse. Child maltreatment dramatically increases the odds of four serious mental disorders, and of having a mental disorder.
• Australians who experience child sexual abuse are, in the prior 12 months::
  • 2.7 times more likely to have self-harmed
  • 2.3 times more likely to have attempted suicide
  • 1.2 times more likely to have had an overnight hospital admission
• Multiple recommendations — Royal Commissions, Inquiries, Peak Bodies and governments, including the Victorian Government itself — have called for integrated systems of health and care to be implemented for various cohorts in Australia, including survivors of child sexual abuse, over the past decade.
• Although numerous examples of the benefits delivered by existing place-based integrated systems of health and care in the UK (since 2016) and New Zealand (since 2007), no Australia government has invested in learning from, and piloting them here.
• Given the prevalence and impact of child sexual abuse, we call on the Australian Government to acknowledge that the provision of an integrated model of health and care that benefits adult survivors and communities impacted by child sexual abuse, requires piloting a place-based model of integrated health and care for all citizens in a region.
• We call on the Australian Government to work with the Victorian Government, to pilot a place-based model of integrated care for all , by expanding the Regional Mental Health and Wellbeing Boards established in the Grampians and South East Metro, Melbourne, to be the first Australian pilots. As these regions include two Victorian communities devastated by historic, systemic institutional child sexual abuse, the Ballarat community, and the Bayside communities of Melbourne.

The most effective and least costly option — an integrated model of health and care — isn’t optional.

Read our call for action and supporting case for change, in full here.
What an appropriate Victorian Government response to the public health emergency of survivors and communities impacted by child sexual abuse, looks like.

We are now embarking on a stakeholder engagement and media campaign. We will keep you updated on our progress and how you can support our campagaign.

Thank you for your ongoing support, it really matters. Together we can make a difference.