Northern Health has launched a landmark partnership with Monash University to address one of the most complex challenges facing Australia’s health system: occupational violence and aggression (OVA) in healthcare.

This first-of-its-kind collaboration will deliver an independent, systems-based review of OVA across Northern Health’s hospitals and community services – the first initiative of its scale undertaken by a health service anywhere in Victoria or Australia.

Importantly, the initiative places strong and active community involvement at its core, recognising that meaningful and lasting change can only be achieved through partnership, shared understanding and collective action.

Northern Health was joined yesterday, for the first time, with the Minister for Health, The Hon. Harriet Shing MP to launch the groundbreaking partnership. She met and spoke with representatives from Monash University and members of Northern Health frontline staff as part of her visit.

Healthcare workers across the country are experiencing increasing levels of verbal, physical and psychological aggression in the course of their work, a trend with significant consequences for staff wellbeing, patient care and service continuity.

At Northern Health alone, since 2023 there have been 20 WorkCover claims related to workplace violence, costing $2.75 million and resulting in more than 550 weeks of lost workforce capacity.

However, Northern Health emphasises that violence in healthcare is complex and cannot be reduced to individual incidents or simple explanations. It reflects broader system, social and community factors that require thoughtful, collaborative solutions.

Northern Health Chief Executive Adj. Prof Debra Bourne said the initiative reflects a commitment not only to staff safety, but to working openly and constructively with the community to improve the experience for everyone.

“No one comes to work to be assaulted and everyone deserves to feel safe when accessing care,” she said.

“This partnership is about recognising the complexity of occupational violence and taking evidence-based action, together with our community, to prevent it.”

“Safer staff means safer care, for everyone who comes through our doors. That’s something we all have a role in achieving.”

Led by the Monash University Accident Research Centre, an internationally recognised leader in injury prevention and systems analysis and partnered with Monash Nursing and Midwifery, renowned as a leader in nursing and midwifery education and research, the project will apply a comprehensive methodology that examines not only frontline incidents, but the broader system-level factors that contribute to violence – from organisational processes through to societal and community influences.

The review will include staff engagement, systems mapping, and analysis of how current policies operate in practice, alongside opportunities for community input and lived experience to shape solutions.

Dr Amanda Stephens (Project Lead and Senior Research Fellow at Monash University Accident Research Centre, said the partnership represents a significant step forward.

“Workplace violence in healthcare is not isolated to individual incidents. It is shaped by multiple interacting factors across the system, including how services, communities and expectations intersect,” she said.

“This work will support a shift from reactive responses to proactive, system-wide prevention informed by both evidence and community experience.”

Northern Health serves one of Victoria’s fastest-growing and most culturally diverse communities. The organisation acknowledges that building safer healthcare environments depends on mutual respect, cultural understanding and strong partnerships with patients, families and communities.

Rather than positioning the issue as “health service versus community,” this initiative is designed to bring people together to co-design solutions that are practical, respectful and sustainable.

The work will inform the development of a three-year, evidence-based strategy to strengthen prevention, improve workforce safety and enhance patient experience across the organisation.

By opening its systems to independent scrutiny and prioritising collaboration, Northern Health is positioning itself as a national leader in addressing occupational violence in healthcare – through shared responsibility and meaningful partnership with the community it serves.