Te Aorerekura: Towards Eliminating Family Violence – Reflections from the Atawhai Project

Abstract

Family violence is an under-recognised contributor to ill-health. Atawhai, a three-year research project focusing on sustainable responses to family violence in primary healthcare services, suggests that relationships and networks among locality-based service providers and local communities will help in making New Zealand’s strategy to eliminate family violence a reality. More is needed than joining up the government agencies delivering services to those experiencing family violence. Building relationships between communities and healthcare providers to harness the contextual and cultural knowledge of those most affected has to be integral to a sustainable response that begins to address the causes of this wicked problem, along with developing place-based solutions.