This report presents a summary of findings from WCHM’s research into women’s experiences of seeking help for domestic violence (DV) in the ACT.

Despite the incredible diversity among the 17 women who participated in the research, their experiences of seeking help for DV revealed the same three themes:

• A spectrum of violence needs a spectrum of responses.
• Responses need to ensure that victims feel protected, not punished, and that perpetrators are held to account.
• Help-seeking journeys change over time, so too do women’s needs.

Embedded in all three of these themes were four key ideas:

1. All parts of the ACT human service system need to take greater responsibility for identifying and working with victims and perpetrators of violence, this work must be informed and coordinated by those agencies with specialist knowledge and expertise of DV.
2. Resources must be maintained for existing responses to DV, and investment made to fill the gaps identified through this and other research.
3. DV help-seeking is a process, not an event. Responses would be most effective if tailored to the type of violence a victim is experiencing and the particular point in the journey they are at.
4. To be effective responses must trust women, fully inform women, and then listen to what they say is best for their lives.

The findings presented in this report reveal stories in which women were well supported. In these stories the women talk of the support provided by ACT’s specialist domestic and sexual violence services and other women’s services who had the most comprehensive understanding of the spectrum of violence and, therefore, provided the most supportive and appropriate assistance to the women. The findings also reveal stories in which women could have been better supported. In these stories the women talk about the need for non-DV related services to acknowledge the role that they have to play in identifying, asking about and offering information on DV, and the difference that makes for victims.

Research like this has not been undertaken with ACT women before. We hope that it will provide detail and depth of understanding of what helps and hinders those seeking help for DV.