Sarah Wendt
Biographic Data
| ID | 277539 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sarah Wendt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sarah |
| FAMILY NAME | Wendt |
| SIGNATURE | WENDT S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Flinders University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1006-0299 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 49 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 156 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 49 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Enabling collaboration through co-design
Cross-sector collaboration between statutory child protection and domestic and family violence services (DFV) is recognised as a best social work practice to improve the safety of women and children. However, there are many challenges in establishing collaborative service-delivery, particularly between statutory child protection and non-statutory specialist DFV agencies and there has been extremely limited research in this context. Addressing thi…
Understanding the role of faith-based pastoral care in responding to domestic violence
This article provides an overview of the increased focus on the role of religion, religious leadership and faith-based organisations in ending gender-based violence including domestic violence. In understanding the rationale for this development, we identify three key areas that need further consideration. First, what is the role of religious communities in ending gender-based violence; second, what is the role and practice of faith-based pastora…
Domestic and Family Violence Work and Social Work Identity
Collaboration at the intersection of domestic and family violence and child protection
Collaboration is hindered by conflicting paradigms, crisis-driven service delivery, and lack of shared decision-making, compounded by systemic issues like high workloads and underreported DFV. • Co-located, cross-sector roles enhance collaboration between DFV services and child protection agencies by improving communication, transparency, and bridging knowledge gaps. • Developing a shared language for risk and safety assessments aligns DFV and ch…
Gendered work, gendered violence
This article explores the differential, gendered impacts of work with perpetrators of domestic and family violence (DFV) in the context of Men’s Behaviour Change Programs (MBCPs). Drawing on qualitative data generated by interviews and focus groups with 117 Australian DFV workers, this article proposes that perpetrator intervention work is specifically and substantially gendered, demanding different things of men and women. In exploring men and w…
National Registration for Social Workers
Aboriginal Women Sharing Their Work
Understanding services provided to children in DFV shelters
This study examines practice responses for children who reside in the context of domestic and family violence (DFV) shelters in Australia. DFV is a recognized form of child abuse and identified as such in child protection legislations, policies, and practice guidelines. The prevalence of children who experience DFV is unknown and underestimated. DFV shelters that provide crisis accommodation and case management services were traditionally establi…
Improving Service Responses for Children and Young People Who Experience Domestic and Family Violence
Domestic and family violence experienced by women and children is a significant social issue. Children and young people's exposure to domestic and family violence is a recognised form of child abuse and neglect nationally and internationally reflected in child protection legislations and practice guidelines. There is an increasing imperative to ensure effective responses are provided to children and young people, however there are significant ser…
Theological arguments framing violence against women
Young Women's Experiences of Violence and Homelessness
This article explores the lived experience of young women navigating and surviving domestic and family violence (DFV) and homelessness. Promoting the voices of young women through in-depth interviews, this article considers their story of violence, abuse, homelessness, and sense of safety. Such stories enable reflection on the ability of services to provide personal, material, emotional, and cultural safety in a way that recognizes the intersecti…
Exploring the Theological Context to Domestic and Family Violence
This article explores the theological drivers of domestic and family violence (DFV)—specifically intimate partner violence—by engaging with ecclesiastical beliefs and practices of the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA). Key theological, policy, and public documents were analyzed to understand gender relations, gender roles, marriage, ordination, ethical behavior, and responses to DFV. Findings from the document analysis demonstrate church practic…
Safe and Unsafe Housing for Domestic and Family Violence Survivors
Safe housing is necessary for women who have left a domestically violent relationship. However, there has been limited attention paid to the meanings of safety beyond refuges and crisis accommodation. This article strengthens the conceptualisation of safe and unsafe housing through a focus on practitioners’ definitions. Our analysis draws from focus groups with 30 practitioners across six services in Adelaide, Australia, working with young women …
Yarning for a purpose
Defining safety and wellbeing measurements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people can be difficult due to its subjectivity. This article discusses findings from yarning circles held with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples discussing these very definitions. It is argued through the findings; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge must be incorporated when defining safety and wellbeing measures such …
Exploring Christian Lutheran theological framings that shape men's perpetration of domestic violence through pastor perspectives
The inclusion of theological beliefs and practices in the analysis of domestic violence is needed, hence this paper explores how Christian theological framings shape men’s perpetration of domestic violence. Through engagement with the Lutheran Church of Australia, interviews and a survey with Pastors found that gender was dominant in the themes and provided a framework for how Pastors understood domestic violence and how they articulated their ex…
The Long Shadow of Intimate Partner Violence
Ongoing health issues influence the postseparation lives of survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). This study identified associations between health following IPV and demographic, housing, employment, and social participation factors. Survivors of IPV in Australia were surveyed. Logistic regression assessed factors of interest with physical and mental health conditions. Six hundred and fifty-eight women participated. Physical health issues…
Social Participation After Intimate Partner Violence
This large mixed methods study adopted a citizenship lens to examine the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on women's social participation. The study found that social participation in all categories contracted dramatically during IPV and, in most cases, never regained pre-violence levels. The study also found that following initial social withdrawal, many women went on to reengage in new ways, including through political activism on gend…
Responding to Domestic Violence
Collaboration Between Child Protection and Domestic and Family Violence
Collaboration across child protection and domestic and family violence sectors has been identified as central to responding to complexities experienced by families within these practice fields. However, there is little research that explores how collaboration happens and what outcomes are produced. This paper reports on a study that reviewed 21 case files between 2015 and 2019 to identify the indicators of collaboration when domestic and family v…
Aboriginal Cultural Safety
There has been little research into what enables culturally safe collaboration between Aboriginal services and statutory child protection organisations, particularly when family violence is a concern. This article reports on a qualitative study that analysed working group data from practice between KWY Family Safety Services and the Department for Child Protection, South Australia, who came together to build culturally safe collaboration when wor…
Developing an Intake Assessment for Domestic and Family Violence Supported Accommodation
Domestic and family violence often results in women and children needing to find alternative safe housing and, on some occasions, this need to relocate may result in homelessness. Public housing and case management packages are scarce for women and children experiencing long-term homelessness caused by domestic and family violence. The research reported here led to the identification of criteria to enable the prioritisation of housing program res…
Being child‐centred
This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that focused on factors that facilitate professional judgement and decision‐making that is child‐centred. Appreciative inquiry informed the methodology that enabled four focus groups ( n = 50) with child protection practitioners who worked with children and young people living out‐of‐home care. The study found that, firstly, child protection practitioners had clear conceptualizations of what c…
First Contact Social Work
Domestic and family violence (DFV) is a pervasive social problem that social workers often encounter in practice. Responses to DFV require specialist and non-specialist services. Research suggests that first contact social workers can experience a lack of confidence, both in engaging with men who use violence and working with women and children who disclose experiencing violence. This article reports on the findings of an Australian survey (N = 1…
Workplace Violence Against Domestic and Family Violence and Sexual Assault Workers
Violence against social workers and other social service practitioners is prevalent across countries and service delivery settings, often accepted as implicit in working with vulnerable clients. A corresponding scholarly focus on workplace violence, and the factors that affect it, is, however, still developing. This is particularly stark in the domestic and family violence (DFV) and sexual assault (SA) sectors. To address this gap, this article e…
Building Collaboration with Child Protection and Domestic and Family Violence Sectors
Collaboration across child protection and domestic and family violence (DFV) sectors have long been sought despite the competing priorities found in these practice fields. This article describes a research partnership that aimed to explore the competing priorities by focusing on how workers interact across child protection and DFV specialist agencies. Using a Living Lab Approach, enabled twelve focus groups with child protection and DFV social wo…
Constructions of local culture and impacts on domestic violence in an Australian rural community
Intimate Partner Violence and Housing
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an extreme example of gender inequality that compromises women’s citizenship. This article discusses the effects of IPV on women’s housing circumstances based on the findings of a large national Australian survey. The analysis found that IPV erodes women’s citizenship, which includes their access to safe and affordable housing, connections to “home,” and participation in community life. Drawing on notions of gen…
Strengthening the Domestic and Family Violence Workforce
The significant impact of domestic and family violence in Australia calls for a workforce that is both highly skilled and capable of meeting the demands of complex and challenging jobs. Yet despite the increasingly national visibility of domestic violence, the workers—and work itself—have largely remained invisible. We argue for a shift in conversation, highlighting the need for a workforce approach that is not only strategic but that also applie…
Feminist social work research engaging with poststructural ideas
English This article draws on two empirical studies, one with women who had experienced domestic violence and the other with children and young people in public care. It presents reflections by two feminist social workers on how poststructuralism influenced their research practices in social work. French Cet article fait appel à deux études empiriques; la première auprès de femmes victimes de violence conjugale et la seconde auprès d'enfants et d…
Belonging
Women with an intellectual disability are under-represented in domestic violence research, yet they are one of the most vulnerable groups who are at risk of violence and abuse. This article aims to contribute to the domestic violence field by reporting on a narrative dialogic performative study, which utilised a feminist poststructural perspective to explore significant relationships and the concept of belonging in the lives of women with a mild …
Thriving, not just surviving, in emotionally demanding fields of practice
Research within the disciplines of Social Work and Education has for sometime acknowledged the tragedy, trauma, conflict and misery that can be experienced by workers in their associated professions. More recently, there has been an aligned interest in the role of passion, emotion and energy in sustaining these professionals through such experiences. This paper contributes to the growing literature in this area by reporting on a study conducted w…
Outdated Laws, Outspoken Whores”
Understanding contexts of family violence in rural, farming communities
Research on family violence in rural communities in Australia and Canada has shown that women’s experience of family violence is shaped by social and cultural factors. Concern for economic security and inheritance for children, closeness and belonging, and values of family unity and traditional gender roles are factors in rural communities that form the social and cultural context in which health and wellbeing are embedded. The findings presented…
Mothering and Domestic Violence
This article aimed to explore the complications and complexities of mothering in the contexts of domestic violence. Through interviews with nine women who had mothered in domestic violence, it was found that women do attempt to protect children from physical and emotional harm; however, the climate of fear, power, and control present in domestic violence limits protection, and women try pleasing their partners to prevent violence. This article ar…
Aboriginal Women's Perceptions and Experiences of a Family Violence Transitional Accommodation Service
This article presents a qualitative study of Aboriginal women's perceptions and experiences of a transitional housing program in South Australia that was established to assist long-term homelessness and family violence. The aim of the study was to explore the experiences and service outcomes for Aboriginal women and their children and to identify both facilitators and barriers to the effective operation of the program. Face-to-face interviews wer…
Financial Abuse of Older People by Family Members
Research indicates that the most commonly reported form of abuse of older people in Australia is financial abuse and the majority of perpetrators are family members. The number of people aged 65 years and over in Australia is growing rapidly and the challenges of aging often require support and assistance from family members, so it is important to develop strategies to prevent this form of abuse. This article analyses data from two national onlin…
Christianity and Domestic Violence
Research has shown that spiritual and religious identification plays a role in defining women's experiences of violence and therefore that social workers need to acknowledge and create safe spaces to talk about this identification. This article describes a rural Australian study that focused on the impact of a local culture on domestic violence, in which Christianity strongly influenced women's experiences of violence. It is argued that looking a…
Being child‐centred
This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that focused on factors that facilitate professional judgement and decision‐making that is child‐centred. Appreciative inquiry informed the methodology that enabled four focus groups ( n = 50) with child protection practitioners who worked with children and young people living out‐of‐home care. The study found that, firstly, child protection practitioners had clear conceptualizations of what c…
Rethinking Women’s Mental Health After Intimate Partner Violence
This article reports on mixed methods research into intimate partner violence (IPV) and women's mental health. Using an online national survey and life history interviews, quantitative and qualitative data analysis demonstrates how IPV negatively impacts women's sense of self, with other multiple losses in relation to income, work, housing, and social participation further undermining recovery into the long term. The feminist concept of sexual po…
First Contact Social Work
Domestic and family violence (DFV) is a pervasive social problem that social workers often encounter in practice. Responses to DFV require specialist and non-specialist services. Research suggests that first contact social workers can experience a lack of confidence, both in engaging with men who use violence and working with women and children who disclose experiencing violence. This article reports on the findings of an Australian survey (N = 1…
Changed Men? Men Talking about Violence and Change in Domestic and Family Violence Perpetrator Intervention Programs
This article critically interrogates the ways in which men's talk about domestic and family violence (DFV) and change reproduce gender hierarchies which are themselves productive of violence. Drawing on interviews with men who have completed a perpetrator program and building on the work of Hearn (1998), we show that these men's conceptualizations of change both reflect and contribute to the discursive construction of masculinity, responsibility,…
Building and Sustaining Local Co-ordination
Journal Article Building and Sustaining Local Co-ordination: An Australian Rural Community Responds to Domestic and Family Violence Get access Sarah Wendt Sarah Wendt The author is a Lecturer (B) in the School of Social Work and Social Policy and member of the Research Centre for Gender Studies at the University of South Australia. She has completed several research projects on domestic and family violence in rural Australia and continues to publ…
Collaboration Between Child Protection and Domestic and Family Violence
Collaboration across child protection and domestic and family violence sectors has been identified as central to responding to complexities experienced by families within these practice fields. However, there is little research that explores how collaboration happens and what outcomes are produced. This paper reports on a study that reviewed 21 case files between 2015 and 2019 to identify the indicators of collaboration when domestic and family v…
Developing an Intake Assessment for Domestic and Family Violence Supported Accommodation
Domestic and family violence often results in women and children needing to find alternative safe housing and, on some occasions, this need to relocate may result in homelessness. Public housing and case management packages are scarce for women and children experiencing long-term homelessness caused by domestic and family violence. The research reported here led to the identification of criteria to enable the prioritisation of housing program res…
Women’s Perceptions of Safety After Domestic Violence
This article explores women’s experiences of the women’s safety services associated with a South Australian integrated program for male perpetrators of domestic and family violence. As small scale and exploratory, the study aimed to understand impact of such services on women’s perceptions of safety. Interviews were conducted by telephone, using a semi-structured format, with 14 women whose partners or ex-partners had been referred to a perpetrat…
Social Work Registration
The Social Workers Registration Bill 2018 is before the Parliament of South Australia. It makes provision to establish a social worker registration board with powers to investigate complaints and enforce penalties for breach of competency and ethical standards. This paper presents an argument for the national registration of social workers; and in addition, outlines key considerations for thinking about risk, protection, safeguarding, and impleme…
The Current State of Feminism and Social Work
Improving Service Responses for Children and Young People Who Experience Domestic and Family Violence
Domestic and family violence experienced by women and children is a significant social issue. Children and young people's exposure to domestic and family violence is a recognised form of child abuse and neglect nationally and internationally reflected in child protection legislations and practice guidelines. There is an increasing imperative to ensure effective responses are provided to children and young people, however there are significant ser…
Young Women's Experiences of Violence and Homelessness
This article explores the lived experience of young women navigating and surviving domestic and family violence (DFV) and homelessness. Promoting the voices of young women through in-depth interviews, this article considers their story of violence, abuse, homelessness, and sense of safety. Such stories enable reflection on the ability of services to provide personal, material, emotional, and cultural safety in a way that recognizes the intersecti…
Exploring the Theological Context to Domestic and Family Violence
This article explores the theological drivers of domestic and family violence (DFV)—specifically intimate partner violence—by engaging with ecclesiastical beliefs and practices of the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA). Key theological, policy, and public documents were analyzed to understand gender relations, gender roles, marriage, ordination, ethical behavior, and responses to DFV. Findings from the document analysis demonstrate church practic…
Christianity and Domestic Violence
Research has shown that spiritual and religious identification plays a role in defining women's experiences of violence and therefore that social workers need to acknowledge and create safe spaces to talk about this identification. This article describes a rural Australian study that focused on the impact of a local culture on domestic violence, in which Christianity strongly influenced women's experiences of violence. It is argued that looking a…
Constructions of local culture and impacts on domestic violence in an Australian rural community
Feminist social work research engaging with poststructural ideas
English This article draws on two empirical studies, one with women who had experienced domestic violence and the other with children and young people in public care. It presents reflections by two feminist social workers on how poststructuralism influenced their research practices in social work. French Cet article fait appel à deux études empiriques; la première auprès de femmes victimes de violence conjugale et la seconde auprès d'enfants et d…
Understanding contexts of family violence in rural, farming communities
Research on family violence in rural communities in Australia and Canada has shown that women’s experience of family violence is shaped by social and cultural factors. Concern for economic security and inheritance for children, closeness and belonging, and values of family unity and traditional gender roles are factors in rural communities that form the social and cultural context in which health and wellbeing are embedded. The findings presented…
Building and Sustaining Local Co-ordination
Journal Article Building and Sustaining Local Co-ordination: An Australian Rural Community Responds to Domestic and Family Violence Get access Sarah Wendt Sarah Wendt The author is a Lecturer (B) in the School of Social Work and Social Policy and member of the Research Centre for Gender Studies at the University of South Australia. She has completed several research projects on domestic and family violence in rural Australia and continues to publ…
Thriving, not just surviving, in emotionally demanding fields of practice
Research within the disciplines of Social Work and Education has for sometime acknowledged the tragedy, trauma, conflict and misery that can be experienced by workers in their associated professions. More recently, there has been an aligned interest in the role of passion, emotion and energy in sustaining these professionals through such experiences. This paper contributes to the growing literature in this area by reporting on a study conducted w…
Financial Abuse of Older People by Family Members
Research indicates that the most commonly reported form of abuse of older people in Australia is financial abuse and the majority of perpetrators are family members. The number of people aged 65 years and over in Australia is growing rapidly and the challenges of aging often require support and assistance from family members, so it is important to develop strategies to prevent this form of abuse. This article analyses data from two national onlin…
Aboriginal Women's Perceptions and Experiences of a Family Violence Transitional Accommodation Service
This article presents a qualitative study of Aboriginal women's perceptions and experiences of a transitional housing program in South Australia that was established to assist long-term homelessness and family violence. The aim of the study was to explore the experiences and service outcomes for Aboriginal women and their children and to identify both facilitators and barriers to the effective operation of the program. Face-to-face interviews wer…
Financial abuse of older people
This article presents a case study to illustrate the complexities of financial abuse of older people by their family members. It provides insights into why older people and social care professionals may not detect or define family member’s behaviour as abuse or feel discomfort in talking about it. The authors argue case studies can lead to new understandings about financial abuse that move beyond operational definitions to theoretical explanation…
Affect and the lifeworld
The advent of post-industrialism in western societies saw social theorists pay greater attention to the blurring of traditional work and life conceptual categories and the growing role of service professions. Further, much of the theorisation around the human service professions has focussed on occupational stress and professional burnout. This focus on the challenges to worker health has limited considerations of how human service professionals …
Belonging
Women with an intellectual disability are under-represented in domestic violence research, yet they are one of the most vulnerable groups who are at risk of violence and abuse. This article aims to contribute to the domestic violence field by reporting on a narrative dialogic performative study, which utilised a feminist poststructural perspective to explore significant relationships and the concept of belonging in the lives of women with a mild …
Social Work and Domestic Violence
Due to the often siloed nature of the work in human service organisations it is easy to sideline domestic violence work as not the “main” business of social work; however domestic violence is prese
Mothering and Domestic Violence
This article aimed to explore the complications and complexities of mothering in the contexts of domestic violence. Through interviews with nine women who had mothered in domestic violence, it was found that women do attempt to protect children from physical and emotional harm; however, the climate of fear, power, and control present in domestic violence limits protection, and women try pleasing their partners to prevent violence. This article ar…
Intimate violence and abuse in Australian rural contexts
This chapter introduces intimate violence and abuse as a crime topic that occurs in and is shaped by Australian rural contexts. &s;Intimate&s; is the term to emphasise the focus on violence and abuse perpetrated by an intimate partner or family member. The chapter draws out how isolation can amplify fear and control exerted by perpetrators of intimate violence and abuse, and presents privacy and loneliness for victims, and explains with recommend…
Intimate Partner Violence and Housing
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an extreme example of gender inequality that compromises women’s citizenship. This article discusses the effects of IPV on women’s housing circumstances based on the findings of a large national Australian survey. The analysis found that IPV erodes women’s citizenship, which includes their access to safe and affordable housing, connections to “home,” and participation in community life. Drawing on notions of gen…
Nappy bags instead of handbags
This article presents the findings of an Australian study that aimed to explore how young women construct their self-identity while negotiating motherhood and the associated transition to adulthood. Teenage motherhood, within contemporary discourse, often attracts negative assumptions about young women's worth and ability to parent. This study used a combination of semi-structured interviews and memory work to draw out women's stories and give vo…
The Current State of Feminism and Social Work
Outdated Laws, Outspoken Whores”
Women’s Perceptions of Safety After Domestic Violence
This article explores women’s experiences of the women’s safety services associated with a South Australian integrated program for male perpetrators of domestic and family violence. As small scale and exploratory, the study aimed to understand impact of such services on women’s perceptions of safety. Interviews were conducted by telephone, using a semi-structured format, with 14 women whose partners or ex-partners had been referred to a perpetrat…
Social Work Registration
The Social Workers Registration Bill 2018 is before the Parliament of South Australia. It makes provision to establish a social worker registration board with powers to investigate complaints and enforce penalties for breach of competency and ethical standards. This paper presents an argument for the national registration of social workers; and in addition, outlines key considerations for thinking about risk, protection, safeguarding, and impleme…
Strengthening the Domestic and Family Violence Workforce
The significant impact of domestic and family violence in Australia calls for a workforce that is both highly skilled and capable of meeting the demands of complex and challenging jobs. Yet despite the increasingly national visibility of domestic violence, the workers—and work itself—have largely remained invisible. We argue for a shift in conversation, highlighting the need for a workforce approach that is not only strategic but that also applie…
Rethinking Women’s Mental Health After Intimate Partner Violence
This article reports on mixed methods research into intimate partner violence (IPV) and women's mental health. Using an online national survey and life history interviews, quantitative and qualitative data analysis demonstrates how IPV negatively impacts women's sense of self, with other multiple losses in relation to income, work, housing, and social participation further undermining recovery into the long term. The feminist concept of sexual po…
Which Models of Supervision Help Retain Staff? Findings From Australia’s Domestic and Family Violence and Sexual Assault Workforces
The contribution professional supervision makes to quality services, staff satisfaction, and retention is well recognised across social work and human service settings. Yet frequent supervision is difficult to provide where organisational resources are limited and urgent client-related tasks must take priority. In these contexts, group-based supervision may offer an alternative to traditional individual approaches, yet its impacts have been infre…
Being child‐centred
This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that focused on factors that facilitate professional judgement and decision‐making that is child‐centred. Appreciative inquiry informed the methodology that enabled four focus groups ( n = 50) with child protection practitioners who worked with children and young people living out‐of‐home care. The study found that, firstly, child protection practitioners had clear conceptualizations of what c…
First Contact Social Work
Domestic and family violence (DFV) is a pervasive social problem that social workers often encounter in practice. Responses to DFV require specialist and non-specialist services. Research suggests that first contact social workers can experience a lack of confidence, both in engaging with men who use violence and working with women and children who disclose experiencing violence. This article reports on the findings of an Australian survey (N = 1…
Medicine (33 works) · Domestic violence (32 works) · Poison control (32 works) · Intimate Partner and Family Violence (31 works) · Sociology (29 works) · Psychology (28 works) · Political science (27 works) · Suicide prevention (23 works) · Gender Studies (15 works) · Public relations (15 works)