Public health, family violence, and COVID-19

This week we discuss whether Australia’s coronavirus prevention measures are fit for purpose and take a look at the challenges facing victims of family violence who are stuck at home due to the pandemic.Are Australia’s COVID-19 prevention measures sustainable? How can policymakers get the balance right in the coming months and maybe years while the world searches for a vaccine? And what has been the impact of the pandemic on those living in abusive relationships? On this episode of Policy Forum Pod, Professor Sharon Bessell chats with infectious diseases expert Professor Peter Collignon AM about Australia’s COVID-19 prevention measures, before Dr Bianca Calabria joins us to discuss family violence during the pandemic.Professor Peter Collignon AM is an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist at the Canberra Hospital. He is currently Executive Director of ACT Pathology and a Professor at The Australian National University Medical School.Dr Bianca Calabria is a Research Fellow at the Research School of Population Health at The Australian National University and a Conjoint Lecturer at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at University of New South Wales. She also works as a psychologist, with people who have experienced trauma, particularly survivors of domestic violence.Professor Sharon Bessell is a Professor at Crawford School of Public Policy, where she is co-leader of the ANU Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) team. The IDM is a new, gender-sensitive and multidimensional measure of poverty.Policy Forum Pod is available on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Subscribe on Android or wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or join us on the Facebook group. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.