Gateway Health has called for greater recognition of Adult Family Violence, an often-overlooked form of family violence that predominantly impacts older women, in its submission to the Australian Government’s Second Action Plan under the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2032.

Adult family violence refers to violence, abuse, intimidation or controlling behaviour used by an adult and directed towards a parent or another adult family member, outside of an intimate partnership. This most commonly presents as violence perpetrated by an adult son towards his mother.

This submission draws on Gateway Health’s experience through its Family Drug Support Program, which supports around 60 families each year across the Ovens Murray region.

In 2024-25, 64 per cent of referrals to Gateway Health services were older parents supporting adult children with co-occurring needs and 40 per cent of clients were aged over 60.

Many of these older parents, predominantly mothers, are providing care, support and advocacy for their adult children, while their experience of violence remains invisible within our current policy and service system responses.

 Alicia Phillips, AOD Specialist Family Violence Advisor and AOD Family Counsellor at Gateway Health, said the submission was informed by families sharing experiences of adult family violence and the challenges they faced accessing appropriate support.

“Parents who continue to provide care and housing for their adult children often find themselves torn between supporting someone they love and protecting their own safety,” she said.

“For mothers in particular, there can be the double burden of feeling responsible for providing housing and advocating for their adult child’s support needs, alongside feeling blamed or judged for their adult’s child use of violence.”

Gateway Health is calling for Adult Family Violence to be formally recognised within national policy as a distinct form of family violence, separate from both intimate partner violence and elder abuse. It recommends greater investment in research, workforce training and support services.

The submission further calls for improved risk assessment tools, better access to housing and treatment services, increased support for family members and carers, and targeted intervention pathways for people who use adult family violence.

View the Gateway Health Submission to the Second Action Plan HERE