An Orange Door hub to help those people experiencing family violence could still be a year away.
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Orange Door hubs aims to connect government and community services to provide a single contact point for people affected by family violence.
A hub was promised for Bendigo in October 2018. Minister for Prevention of Family Violence Gabrielle Williams said Bendigo would have a hub within the year.
Read more: Family violence focus of forum in Bendigo
Ms Williams said the hub would bring together Bendigo's two Aboriginal cooperatives, the Centre for Non-Violence and Anglicare, who will working with existing services across the region.
Ms Williams said the information sharing services an Orange Door hub would provide was critical for services to form a clear picture of the risks a client faced.
Ms Williams attributed higher rates of domestic violence in 2019 to an increased number of women reporting incidents.
Creating cultural change was critical to driving down rates of family violence, she said.
She said government would expect an escalation of reporting rates as it embarked on reform, which wasn't necessarily a reflection of more family violence, but of more people talking about it.
"It seems as though there are higher rates but what in fact it is, it's more women actually reporting their incidents of family violence which is a positive thing, because it's more women reaching out for help, it's more women being able to be connected to services that they need," Ms Williams said.
An average of one woman a week is murdered by a current or former partner.
Twenty-one women have been murdered in Australia during 2019.
Mrs Williams was at Bendigo Health on Monday to announce $7.8 million of funding for an initiative to strengthen hospital responses to family violence.
The program teaches staff to recognise and respond appropriately to family violence.
About 800 clinical staff have been trained as part of the program at the hospital. This includes 85 percent of the emergency staff, and staff on women's wards, and 90 percent of staff on children's wards.
Bendigo Health clinical champion for the initiative Rebecca Williams said that rates of domestic violence had been higher in the early part of the year.
Indicators of family violence can include,escalation of violence, recent separation and a lack of healthcare.
Protocol guides staff through recognising family violence, asking questions sensitively and tools to refer onto services or crisis accommodation.
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