Cedar Health Service: Leading Integrated Healthcare Responses to Domestic and Family Violence in South Australia
Tracks
Ballroom 2: In-Person Only
| Tuesday, November 24, 2026 |
| 11:10 AM - 11:30 AM |
| Ballroom 2 |
Overview
Amber Oest, Women's And Children's Health Network
Three Key Learnings
1. Understanding the role of health services in responding to DFV through early identification, intervention, healing-focused care.
2. Exploring integrated, trauma-informed and “no wrong door” approaches that support victim-survivors through multidisciplinary care and coordinated pathways.
3. Identifying strategies for system change through collaboration, information sharing and DFV-informed practice in healthcare settings.
Speaker
Ms Amber Oest
Manager, Cedar Health Service
Women's And Children's Health Network
Cedar Health Service: Leading Integrated Healthcare Responses to Domestic and Family Violence in South Australia
Presentation Overview
Domestic and Family Violence (DFV) is not only a social issue, but also a significant health issue with devastating and long-lasting impacts on physical health, mental health, wellbeing and community connection. At Cedar Health Service, we are reimagining how healthcare responds to violence through one of Australia’s only integrated publicly funded community health-based DFV response services, bringing together doctors, nurses and social workers to provide coordinated, compassionate and healing-focused healthcare.
Operating at the intersection of healthcare and social support, Cedar Health Service delivers inclusive, trauma-informed, culturally safe and person-centred responses that recognise violence as both a driver and outcome of health inequity. Cedar Health Service creates safe pathways for risk assessment and health intervention for victim-survivors experiencing the complex impacts of DFV, including chronic illness, mental health challenges, reproductive coercion, traumatic brain injury and non-fatal strangulation.
What sets Cedar Health Service apart is its commitment to system transformation. Beyond direct service delivery, the program has developed a strategic and collaborative approach to information sharing, workforce capability building and cross-sector training, strengthening DFV responses across healthcare, social services and community sectors. By embedding DFV expertise within community health, Cedar Health Service is helping shift systems from fragmented and crisis-driven responses towards integrated, accountable and healing-oriented care.
This presentation will showcase how Cedar Health Service is building safer futures through structural reform, multidisciplinary collaboration and measurable impact. It will explore the critical role community health services play in prevention, early identification, healing and response, while offering a practical and replicable framework for embedding DFV-informed practice into healthcare systems nationally.
Cedar Health Service demonstrates what is possible when healthcare moves beyond treating symptoms and becomes a powerful driver of safety, recovery and lasting change.
Operating at the intersection of healthcare and social support, Cedar Health Service delivers inclusive, trauma-informed, culturally safe and person-centred responses that recognise violence as both a driver and outcome of health inequity. Cedar Health Service creates safe pathways for risk assessment and health intervention for victim-survivors experiencing the complex impacts of DFV, including chronic illness, mental health challenges, reproductive coercion, traumatic brain injury and non-fatal strangulation.
What sets Cedar Health Service apart is its commitment to system transformation. Beyond direct service delivery, the program has developed a strategic and collaborative approach to information sharing, workforce capability building and cross-sector training, strengthening DFV responses across healthcare, social services and community sectors. By embedding DFV expertise within community health, Cedar Health Service is helping shift systems from fragmented and crisis-driven responses towards integrated, accountable and healing-oriented care.
This presentation will showcase how Cedar Health Service is building safer futures through structural reform, multidisciplinary collaboration and measurable impact. It will explore the critical role community health services play in prevention, early identification, healing and response, while offering a practical and replicable framework for embedding DFV-informed practice into healthcare systems nationally.
Cedar Health Service demonstrates what is possible when healthcare moves beyond treating symptoms and becomes a powerful driver of safety, recovery and lasting change.
Biography
BBSc, MChild&AdolesWelf, GradcertCCP, MSW, CertIV TAE, DipLeadMgt
Amber is a Social Worker with extensive practice experience across both strategic and operational platforms within the DFV, public health, statutory and community child protection sectors (in South Australia and Queensland). Amber has a background in leading service accreditation requirements, policy development and clinical / organisational risk. Amber draws on a specialised knowledge of gender-based violence, trauma, and criminology and provides leadership in supporting robust DFV risk assessments and promoting best practice responses from healthcare services to improve health outcomes for victim-survivors, whilst maintaining a strong focus on workplace wellbeing.
