Evidence from Australia, and from other countries, shows strong links between DFSV victimisation and suicidality, yet DFSV-related suicide remains under-recognised in policy, practice and data. Suicides linked to coercive control, post-separation abuse, sexual violence, stalking and systems abuse are frequently misclassified as generic “relationship problems” or treated solely through a mental health lens, obscuring the role of violence, entrapment and perpetrator tactics in driving distress and death.
DVNSW members report that specialist DFSV services are increasingly responding to suicidality that is deeply entwined with violence and entrapment. They are using integrated risk practice, perpetrator-focused approaches, and combining DFSV safety planning with suicide risk management. At the same time they are operating above and beyond capacity due to chronic underfunding (DVNSW 2025) and require training to manage suicide risk and improve integration with mental health services.
However, responses across health, mental health, alcohol and other drug (AOD), legal and justice systems are often inconsistent and siloed from DFSV expertise. There remains limited understanding of how suicidality can be driven by ongoing violence and coercive control. As a result, members report that system responses can be retraumatising, that victim-survivors continue to be mislabelled, and that systems default to a “mental health crisis” narrative that minimises the role of DFSV. In some cases, this system response can result in perpetrator needs being prioritised over victim-survivor safety.
Critically, high-risk victim-survivors can be screened out as “too complex” by both DFSV and mental health services when services are operating beyond funded capacity and staff are managing burnout and vicarious trauma. Without specialist advocacy, key risk information is frequently lost at major intervention points such as police callouts, hospital presentation and discharge, bail decisions and parenting proceedings.
This submission highlights cohorts facing compounded risk, including female victim-survivors; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women; migrant and refugee women; children and young people; victim-survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA); out-of-home care leavers; and women with disability. Across these groups, repeated contact with multiple systems, fragmented responses and lack of culturally safe, disability-inclusive and trauma-informed pathways can intensify isolation, exhaustion and hopelessness over time.
DVNSW also draws attention to evidence that threats of suicide and self-harm can be used by perpetrators as deliberate tactics of coercive control, particularly during separation, custody disputes and other escalation points. Responses must recognise these threats as both a potential mental health crisis and a tactic of coercive control, as well as a marker of heightened lethality risk. Protocols should prioritise victim-survivor safety, trigger rapid risk assessment and perpetrator accountability measures, and ensure victim-survivors are not penalised for disclosing risk.
Where there are mental health concerns, timely and appropriate mental health assessment and intervention for the perpetrator should occur in parallel with safety planning; without shifting responsibility onto victim-survivors or minimising the occurrences of DFSV.
To address these gaps, DVNSW recommends a coordinated national response, that embeds equity and accessibility across reforms. This must prioritise DFSV-specific and trauma-informed responses and include Aboriginal-led and culturally grounded approaches, disability-inclusive crisis accommodation and interpreter-supported pathways.
DVNSW urges governments to make DFSV-related suicide visible and measurable through nationally consistent definitions and coding, structured DFSV screening in coronial and police suicide investigations, and privacy-safe national data linkage that connects coronial data with justice, health and specialist DFSV datasets. Without this, the scale, patterns and preventability of DFSV-related suicide will remain obscured, and critical opportunities for intervention will continue to be missed.
DVNSW also calls for:
- Coordinated DFSV-suicide prevention pathways across all systems, grounded in trauma-informed practice, that require structured DFSV enquiry, warm referral to specialist DFSV services, and shared safety planning with named follow-up responsibility.
- Joint training and clear guidance so all services, across all systems, can identify and respond to suicide risk in the context of DSFV and link victim-survivors quickly to safe, coordinated support.
- Whole-of-family models that support the non-offending parent and children alongside perpetrator accountability where appropriate.
- Trauma-informed routine enquiry on childhood safety/abuse/neglect at key service entry points.
- Minimum gender-safety standards in mental health settings to prevent further victimisation.
Together, these reforms would shift the system from reactive crisis responses to coordinated early identification, safety and accountability. Suicidal distress triggers would prompt enquiry into potential violence and entrapment, victim-survivors would receive timely access to specialist support, and perpetrators’ tactics would be recognised and acted upon. Importantly, governments would be able to measure and prevent DFSV-related suicide with the seriousness it demands.