THE LEADING agency dealing with family violence in the northern suburbs has admitted it cannot cope with demand.
Alarming figures show the City of Whittlesea has consistently reported high levels of domestic violence far above neighbouring suburbs, according to statistics released by Berry Street.
The independent community organisation, which deals with family violence victims referred to them by police, had a huge leap in workload but no extra funding.
This had meant fewer women had been contacted by the agency, and only the children at the highest risk were worked with because there were not enough resources to cope, a Berry Street spokeswoman said.
Gayle Correnti, the acting senior manager of the organisation’s northern family and domestic violence service, said that of the seven municipalities covered, Whittlesea had by far the most police referrals for family violence.
In the first quarter of last year, Whittlesea had 320 incidents, Darebin 245, Hume 206, Banyule 149, Moreland 145, Yarra 77 and Nillumbik 37.
In the three years from July 2009 to June 2012, Whittlesea accounted for 62 per cent or 2286 cases of the total 3660 cases reported from the seven areas, she said.
Ms Correnti said there was no explanation for Whittlesea’s high figures but the agency did not believe it was financial stress.
“It is a gender crime perpetrated by men,” she said.
“When men get stressed they don’t go to work and hit someone, but they do in the home because they believe they are entitled to.” Ms Correnti said violence often occurred when a woman was pregnant, and the agency had helped several women who had miscarried because of the violence.
She said that because of the increasing number of police referrals, the percentage of women contacted by the agency was decreasing.
“You might phone a woman a few times and be unable to contact them, then the next lot of cases come in and you have to push on,” she said.
Children were also missing out on help because there were only enough resources to deal with the most severe cases, she said.
