The Settlement Council of Australia (SCOA) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs’ Inquiry into the relationship between domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) and suicide.
As the national peak body representing more than 180 settlement organisations across Australia, SCOA brings a system-wide perspective grounded in frontline practice, policy engagement and lived experience within migrant and refugee communities.
For migrant and refugee communities, the relationship between DFSV and suicide is shaped by compounding structural vulnerabilities that are not adequately captured in current policy or data systems. These include pre-migration trauma, forced displacement, insecure visa status, transnational coercion, language barriers, racism, housing precarity, social isolation and limited access to culturally safe services.