Demand for domestic and family violence support services in Launceston on the rise

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a day ago

Daisy* was abused by her long-term partner in their Launceston home in August last year.
"I haven't been the same since that night … it was a terrifying experience," she said.
She says the abuse started after she was diagnosed with ADHD and she started to speak up for herself.
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"He'd get drunk and rant, and that's what led up to the final night that I was in the house.
"Essentially, I had looked through his phone and I had found that he'd been cheating on me again online, which was a re-occurring behaviour, and I refused to give his phone back and it went from there."
She said over the next few hours she was assaulted up to 30 times.
"Looking back now I should have just given his phone back and ran, but I didn't know any better," she said.
"I had to keep pushing him off me, he was being very, very violent, frightening me.
"It got to the point where I just gave up and threw the phone out of the bedroom and sat against the bedroom door, blocking it, while he kept slamming the door into my head.
"My ankle suffered some pretty severe damage, my arm was very bruised, I was in a lot of pain, very bruised.
Over the course of their relationship, Daisy said she was not only victim to physical violence, but also reproductive abuse.
Her ex-partner has since been charged with two counts of common assault.
Almost a year on, the daily reminders are still prevalent for Daisy.
"I've been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and initially I didn't cope, I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, my hair was falling out, [I was] just absolutely devastated … and I still have physical injuries.
Daisy's story is an all too familiar reality for Denise Tilley, who runs a counselling support service, Yemaya, in Launceston.
She said she had seen a significant rise over the past few years of people fleeing domestic and family violence and needing help.
"It is really concerning and the rise is multi-pronged, it's not just due to one thing, I know people point to financial and economic pressures, but that's not the underlying cause, that's more of a symptom," she said.
"It's about gender inequality at its base and that allows the perpetuation of violence in the family home."
Anecdotally according to Ms Tilley, the number of women experiencing domestic and family violence presenting to the Launceston General Hospital was on the rise, and the severity of injuries was increasing.
"The increase in presentations to the emergency department is very distressing," she said.
"The stories we're hearing every day, they tear at your heart, especially when they involve children, that children are living in those conditions, seeing things no child should ever see."
Ms Tilley said she was recently told about a case where a male child had been duct taped to a chair while his father held a gun to his mother's head.
Crisis accommodation service Home Base chief executive Di Underwood said a 14-year-old girl recently needed urgent help after being violently abused by a parent.
"She ended up in hospital in a situation where she did nearly die from this violence," Ms Underwood said.
"I think the thing that stayed with me [is that] by the time she was released from hospital into our care as a crisis centre, she was so emotional, kept crying and apologising for putting us out.
"It stayed with me because of what that situation has done to her confidence.
"When something like that happened from someone who is supposed to have your best interests at heart … it keeps me up at night.
"As a community, we've raised so much awareness around the impacts of domestic violence and so many women being murdered by men in relationships, but we don't seem to be getting any better.
"In fact, the number of women dying is increasing."
In 2024, 104 Australian women and 17 children were killed according to the Australian Femicide Watch tally, which tracks every known Australian woman and child killed as a result of murder, manslaughter or neglect.
Currently in 2025, 39 women and 14 children have been killed.
Home Base believes early intervention and education will help break the cycle.
The organisation is running a trial program for boys in primary school, to help them unlearn behaviours they may see in abusive relationships at home and to create better ways of dealing with anger and frustration — instead of lashing out with violence.
"So for boys aged 12 to 18 years, to show them what healthy relationships looks like … it's not about judging them or making them feel guilty about domestic violence, and, in fact, we found some of those boys were experiencing domestic family violence in their homes.
"We'd like to see the program rolled out across the state."
The Supporting Adolescent Boys trial is funded by the federal government until June 2027.
*Name has been changed.