Leveraging Technology To Better Support Our Most Vulnerable: Real Time Family Violence Data
Tracks
Room 3: In-Person Only
| Wednesday, November 26, 2025 |
| 11:45 AM - 12:15 PM |
Overview
Jessica Bermudez, Monash Health
Details
Gaps in data, processes, and systems are common; however, can be effectively addressed through innovative solutions, such as implementing a Family Violence Dashboard accessible across the health service by multiple departments (corporate, clinical, administrative).
Collaborating with consumer representatives and healthcare professionals is vital to ensuring outcomes align with all stakeholders' needs, in particular enhancing client/consumer/patient experience and prioritising the needs of victim survivors of family violence, while also establishing a streamlined clinical workflow.
Our Family Violence Dashboard is designed to improve patient outcomes, demonstrate our commitment to innovation, effective risk management, harm minimisation, and ongoing quality improvement including workforce planning.
Speaker
Ms Jessica Bermudez
Family Violence Project Officer/Senior Social Worker, Family Violence and Elder Abuse Program
Monash Health
Leveraging technology to better support our most vulnerable: real time Family Violence data
Presentation Overview
BACKGROUND:
The Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence (2016) highlighted gaps in family violence data across the service system, necessitating a standardised documentation workflow and efficient method to capture and measure family violence risk.
METHOD:
A multi-disciplinary approach was used with leadership from Social Work, the Family Violence Team and Allied Health Informatics. An internal data working group was established to record existing data collection points, analyse reporting roles and systems, evaluate current strengths and limitations, and identify a systematic process for collecting and reporting family violence data within Monash Health.
We took proactive steps to co-design fit-for-purpose, user friendly Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) documentation tools in our inpatient, outpatient and community electronic health record systems.
Collaborating with consumer and clinician stakeholders, internal business intelligence (BI) and EMR & Informatics teams, we then built a BI Family Violence dashboard, consolidating data across these multiple systems, in real time.
Our dashboard aims to enhance patient outcomes, showcasing our dedication to innovation, effective risk management, harm minimisation and continuous improvement.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS:
Within our large tertiary health organisation, disrupting deeply embedded unsystematic family violence documentation workflows was challenging. Multiple electronic systems created fragmented documentation and data collection which was difficult to capture within the dashboard. Additionally, ensuring clinicians documented in the newly embedded tools to enable accurate dashboard data required significant change implementation including rapid improvement cycles.
RESULTS AND LESSONS:
This innovation allows us to transform our health systems and services by:
• understanding the rate of family violence identification/disclosure and our clinical response
• measuring the level of risk family violence poses to the organisation
• embedding continuous improvement into our practice
• ensuring teams are accountable for their actions and performance
• identifying gaps in processes/systems
• targeting education and upskilling
• workforce development and enhancement.
The Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence (2016) highlighted gaps in family violence data across the service system, necessitating a standardised documentation workflow and efficient method to capture and measure family violence risk.
METHOD:
A multi-disciplinary approach was used with leadership from Social Work, the Family Violence Team and Allied Health Informatics. An internal data working group was established to record existing data collection points, analyse reporting roles and systems, evaluate current strengths and limitations, and identify a systematic process for collecting and reporting family violence data within Monash Health.
We took proactive steps to co-design fit-for-purpose, user friendly Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) documentation tools in our inpatient, outpatient and community electronic health record systems.
Collaborating with consumer and clinician stakeholders, internal business intelligence (BI) and EMR & Informatics teams, we then built a BI Family Violence dashboard, consolidating data across these multiple systems, in real time.
Our dashboard aims to enhance patient outcomes, showcasing our dedication to innovation, effective risk management, harm minimisation and continuous improvement.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS:
Within our large tertiary health organisation, disrupting deeply embedded unsystematic family violence documentation workflows was challenging. Multiple electronic systems created fragmented documentation and data collection which was difficult to capture within the dashboard. Additionally, ensuring clinicians documented in the newly embedded tools to enable accurate dashboard data required significant change implementation including rapid improvement cycles.
RESULTS AND LESSONS:
This innovation allows us to transform our health systems and services by:
• understanding the rate of family violence identification/disclosure and our clinical response
• measuring the level of risk family violence poses to the organisation
• embedding continuous improvement into our practice
• ensuring teams are accountable for their actions and performance
• identifying gaps in processes/systems
• targeting education and upskilling
• workforce development and enhancement.
Biography
Jessica is a Family Violence Project Officer at Monash Health, with 18 years of experience in Social Work. For the past seven years, she has led Monash Health’s implementation of the family violence legislative reforms following the Victorian Government's Royal Commission into Family Violence.
