Submission 11
Submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs
Inquiry into the relationship between domestic, family and sexual violence and suicide
Submitted by: Change For Sam
Author: Lija Matthews, Founder & Director
1. Executive summary
Domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) is a significant and underrecognised driver of suicide risk. For many victim-survivors - particularly during and after leaving a violent relationship - fear, coercive control and the absence of immediate safety compound psychological distress and elevate suicidal ideation.
Change For Sam is a Victorian-based Australian charity that provides free, 24/7 monitored personal safety devices to victim-survivors of family violence who do not meet eligibility criteria for government-funded safety responses. Through partnerships with specialist family violence services across Victoria, Change For Sam delivers a practical, preventative intervention that enhances both physical and psychological safety.
This submission argues that safety itself must be recognised as a core suicide prevention measure in DFSV contexts. Where victim-survivors do not feel safe, therapeutic and crisis responses alone are insufficient. Personal safety devices provide immediate access to help, reduce fear and hypervigilance, and offer critical psychological relief during periods of heightened suicide risk.
The submission also highlights that unmet demand for safety interventions is likely substantially larger than currently reflected in national data. Improved data collection, recognition of non-government safety responses, and targeted resourcing of post separation risk are essential to reducing DFSV-related suicide.
2. About Change For Sam
Change For Sam is a Victorian-based Australian charity founded in response to a fatal gap in the family violence system. The charity was established by its Founder and Director, Lija Matthews, following the murder of her best friend, Samantha Fraser, in 2018.
Change For Sam currently operates exclusively in Victoria. The charity is not recurrently funded and relies entirely on grants, donations and community fundraising. As a result, the scale of service delivery is constrained by available funding rather than demand.
Change For Sam exists to address a critical reality: many victim-survivors of family violence do not meet eligibility thresholds for government-funded safety devices, despite facing ongoing and often escalating risk. Change For Sam is the only known Australian charity providing personal safety devices free of charge to partner family violence agencies, enabling frontline workers to allocate devices based on assessed risk rather than restrictive eligibility criteria.
As at January 2026, Change For Sam has deployed 243 monitored personal safety devices across Victoria, including Metro Melbourne, Bass Coast, the La Trobe Valley, the Bayside Peninsula and the Central Victorian Highlands. This geographic spread reflects both metropolitan and regional demand for safety interventions. While Change For Sam continues to seek opportunities to expand its reach and number of partner agencies, the number of devices in circulation remains constrained by funding rather than assessed need.
The charity provides free, 24/7 monitored personal safety devices through partnerships with specialist family violence services across Victoria. Monitoring is typically provided in six-month blocks; however, this timeframe is deliberately flexible. Victim-survivors may return devices earlier or retain them for longer periods depending on individual circumstances, with autonomy and readiness guiding each decision.
Change For Sam also operates a use-and-reuse model. When a device is no longer required, it is returned, cleared, refurbished and reissued to another victim-survivor. This approach extends the impact of limited resources, empowers participants to support others, and reduces electronic waste and landfill.
3. DFSV, fear and suicide risk
The relationship between DFSV and suicide is complex and systemic. Victim-survivors frequently experience prolonged exposure to coercive control, threats, stalking and intimidation. These dynamics do not necessarily end when a relationship ends; in many cases, risk escalates following separation.
During this period, victim-survivors commonly report persistent fear and hypervigilance, sleep deprivation, social isolation, and loss of control or perceived entrapment.
These factors significantly increase psychological distress and suicide risk. While counselling, crisis lines and mental health services are essential, they cannot mitigate the immediate fear experienced by someone who does not feel physically safe.
For many victim-survivors, the absence of safety undermines their ability to engage meaningfully with therapeutic supports. Suicide prevention efforts that do not account for safety risk overlook a foundational determinant of mental wellbeing in DFSV contexts.
4. Personal safety devices as a protective factor
Personal safety devices provide an immediate, practical intervention that addresses both physical danger and psychological distress. The devices used by Change For Sam allow the wearer to discreetly activate a duress alert, triggering real-time monitoring and response. Recordings on the devices are court admissible.
From a suicide prevention perspective, these devices function as a protective factor by reducing perceived entrapment, lowering panic responses during moments of acute fear, improving sleep and daily functioning, and supporting engagement with recovery and support services.
Partner agencies consistently report that access to a monitored safety device increases victim-survivors’ confidence, autonomy and capacity to rebuild their lives. While devices are not a standalone solution, they create the conditions in which mental health and recovery supports can be effective.
Despite these benefits, personal safety devices remain largely absent from suicide prevention frameworks and under-resourced outside narrow eligibility programs.
5. The unmet safety gap
Change For Sam’s experience indicates that unmet demand for safety interventions is substantial and likely underreported. Specialist family violence services regularly refer clients who are assessed as being at risk but are ineligible for government-funded devices due to restrictive eligibility criteria.
Despite deploying 243 devices across Victoria, Change For Sam is unable to meet all referrals received from partner agencies, reflecting broader system gaps where assessed safety needs exceed available, funded responses.
As a result, charities and community-based programs are filling critical gaps without sustainable funding, safety responses are inconsistent across regions, and data on unmet safety need is fragmented or absent.
The true scale of this gap is not currently captured in national DFSV or suicide data. Improved data collection that recognises safety access, eligibility barriers and post separation risk would provide a clearer understanding of DFSV-related suicide drivers.
Change For Sam anticipates providing supplementary quantitative data to this inquiry as it becomes available through parliamentary processes currently underway.
6. Recommendations
1. Recognise safety as suicide prevention
Acknowledge access to immediate safety as a foundational suicide prevention measure for victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence.
2. Improve data collection on DFSV-related suicide risk
Capture data on access to safety interventions, eligibility barriers for government-funded devices, and heightened post-separation risk.
3. Resource non-government safety responses
Support charities and community-based programs providing personal safety devices and monitoring where government programs do not reach.
4. Prioritise post-separation risk
Explicitly recognise and resource the period following relationship separation as a time of elevated safety and suicide risk.
