Gold Coast Health staff took an Oath today to help raise awareness of White Ribbon Australia’s work to end men’s violence against women.
Chief Executive Ron Calvert will lead other executives and medical staff in a pledge to ‘stand up, speak out and act’ ahead of White Ribbon Day on November 25.
The event is the first step in the health service’s commitment to becoming a White Ribbon accredited workplace which demonstrates gender equality, diversity and a culture of respect at all levels of the organisation.
“Violence against women is no longer a private issue. Our health service sees the impact of the violence perpetrated against women every day,” Mr Calvert said.
“While it is difficult to measure the true extent of domestic and family violence on the Gold Coast community, our social workers identified more than one victim every day during 2016-2017.”
Kym Tighe, Gold Coast Health’s Specialised Domestic and Family Violence social worker – the first in Queensland Health – has been pivotal in building the health service’s capacity to respond to the issue of domestic and family violence over the past year.
“An important part of my role is to provide education and training to enable, doctors, nurses, allied health workers and the broader staff to be able to identify and appropriately respond to women who are experiencing domestic and family violence.
“Becoming a White Ribbon accredited workplace is the next logical step to ensuring that we are doing everything we can to support the community from the frontline,” Ms Tighe said.
Angel Carrasco, the Acting Service Director for Allied Health, took the Oath and said it’s important to empower the 9000-strong Gold Coast Health workforce to make a real difference.
“We want people to know that violence against women is unacceptable, help is always available and if you see something you should definitely say something.
“People need to know that they can make a difference; bringing an end to men’s violence against women will take a whole of community approach,” Mr Carrasco said.
