Healthy families are the first step to protecting children

In response, Anglicare Victoria's Meridian team in Melbourne's east offers a program called Breaking The Cycle. Parents of violent young people meet and share their experiences guided by a facilitator. Parents can receive individual and family counseling, where strategies are given to circuit break the aggression.

Program facilitator, Marianne Watson says there's a lot of blame and shame experienced by these parents, particularly single mothers. Meeting with a group of people who are going through the same thing is a relief. For some parents it is the first time they've spoken about what is happening.

Multiple needs and trauma can leave families feeling a disconnect with everyday life and make it that much harder to claw back to any kind of normalcy. It also makes finding them and getting them to accept help a hard task. A lack of support services and demand outstripping funding add to the challenges faced by case workers.

But keeping the family unit intact where possible is a priority.

" It is what is in the best interest of a child or young person, that's our focus," says Marianne Watson. With that aim, early intervention is the key she says – getting help to a family before it hits breaking point. "We want to make the family function and manage without us, so repairing relationships within the family and creating ones outside of it is crucial."

Not only for the family itself but the wider community, or we stand to marginalize some of our most vulnerable in society – and everyone loses.