KEY POINTS:
Jude Simpson knows how difficult it is to escape domestic violence.
"It's so scary when you're in that situation," she says.
"It's such a huge situation to get out of, the dynamics around it - some of them are life-threatening.
"There are real, serious threats of death."
Ms Simpson, 47, survived for 30 years in that world, experiencing beatings at the hands of three violent partners and eventually going to jail for armed robbery as a result of her involvement with a fourth.
She is now an advocate against what she calls an "epidemic" of family violence and is commending an initiative aimed at combating the problem in the western Bay of Plenty.
The Tauranga Moana Abuse Prevention Strategy, launched yesterday, aims to reduce domestic violence by co-ordinating responses better between relevant agencies to families affected.
Those agencies include the police, the Family Court, Child, Youth and Family, Victim Support, Family Works Northern and Living Without Violence.
Agency representatives have already begun holding joint weekly case-management meetings to determine how better to respond to the 50 domestic-violence incidents a week reported in the Tauranga Moana area, which encompasses Tauranga, Papamoa, Mt Maunganui and Te Puke.
Ms Simpson said: "I think it will be the beginning of many districts taking on the same model as this."
Strategy co-ordinator Jessica Trask said the strategy was based on a programme begun in Gisborne about five years ago that had shown the benefits of an inter-agency approach to the problem.
"Unfortunately, family violence is affecting thousands of people in the Tauranga Moana area and we want to help address that by ensuring relevant, interested agencies are working collaboratively and using best practice," she said.
Agencies had identified working in isolation as a problem because they did not have a good understanding of each other's operations.
Sergeant Jason Perry, until recently the area's police family violence co-ordinator and acknowledged as a key driver of the project, said all concerned parties could see the need for collaboration.
Bay of Plenty district commander Inspector Gary Smith said domestic violence was not a problem police could solve alone. They could make a victim safe and arrest a perpetrator, but other agencies' help was needed to solve the underlying issues.
The project is funded by CYF and Family and Community Services.
Other groups involved include Women's Refuge, Shakti Ethnic Women's Support Group, Relationship Services and Ngati Ranginui iwi.
Ms Trask, who is based at the Tauranga police offices, hopes to increase the number of government and non-government agencies involved to 50 by the end of next year.
Increasing awareness of domestic violence and decreasing tolerance of it in the community was also a key aim of the strategy.
The Cost
Research has shown women who suffered family violence were:
* Three times more likely to require hospital emergency care.
* Five times more likely to need mental health services.
* Three times more likely to need other health services.
* Police handled 45,000 family-violence related calls in 2005.
