The system combating domestic violence and supporting its victims is full of professionals ill-equipped to handle an issue some consider to be their core business, an inquiry has heard.
A string of witnesses has revealed judges, psychiatrists, GPs, nurses, midwives, social workers and teachers have little to no compulsory training on family violence and in many cases are learning "on the job".
Responders and investigators are limited by "tunnel vision", leaving vulnerable groups without targeted support or hope for justice, a parliamentary committee was told.
Researcher Alison Fogarty relayed the case of a woman experiencing intimate partner violence who divulged emotional suffering to her GP, was prescribed anti-depressants and went home without having been asked questions about her home life.
"Some (victims) felt like they disclosed and there wasn't any real support offered", Dr Fogarty told MPs during a hearing in Melbourne on Friday.
This was despite intimate partner violence affecting 40 per cent of women with depression and anxiety symptoms, according to Dr Fogarty.
"They weren't in a position that they were looking to leave that relationship, so ... they were provided medication, or that was the end of the line," she said.
Dr Fogarty said she received "probably one lecture" around family violence in eight years of training as a psychiatrist.
Doctors need to be trained to turn their minds to the possibility of abuse beyond cases where it was easily visible in patients, she said.
"Just that need for training around how to respond to not just that acute safety risk."
Homicide and suicide investigations routinely glossed over potential links to domestic violence if the death could more easily be linked to drug and alcohol abuse, criminal law professor Heather Douglas told the inquiry.
Prof Douglas described investigators as having "tunnel vision".
"We may assume that mental health issues and drug and alcohol issues are the cause of suicide, and so do not investigate histories of domestic abuse and their contributions to suicide," she said.
Alcohol and Drug Foundation chief executive Erin Lalor said victims can self medicate with drugs and alcohol or be coerced into substance abuse, linking the issues with domestic violence "like a venn diagram".
Prof Douglas said judicial education on family violence was also "pretty opt-in", with other witnesses revealing issue-specific training for nurses was confined to online modules and that most social work and teaching degrees had no family violence content.
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