Forum: First Response to Non-Fatal Strangulation
Description
When non-fatal strangulation occurs, the first response matters.
For victim-survivors, early recognition, skilled care, clear documentation and coordinated referral can change the pathway to safety, health and justice.
This landmark Tasmanian forum brings together leading experts, lived-experience advocates and specialist family and sexual violence practitioners for a practical, sector-wide conversation about how we identify and respond to non-fatal strangulation.
If you work in general practice, ambulance, police, accident and emergency, family violence or sexual violence response, this forum is designed for you.
Why attend?
Non-fatal strangulation can be difficult to detect, yet it is a serious indicator of escalating risk and can have immediate, delayed and long-term health impacts. This forum will strengthen your confidence to recognise the signs, understand the risks, respond safely and contribute to a more consistent first-response system.
You will hear from legal, medical, neuropsychological, research, paramedic and lived-experience voices, with a focus on practical insight you can take back to your work with victim-survivors.
What you will gain
A clearer understanding of non-fatal strangulation as a high-risk form of family and sexual violence
Practical knowledge to help identify signs and symptoms, including where injuries may not be visible
Greater confidence in referral pathways, forensic medical examination processes and access to care
Improved approaches to documentation that support safety, continuity of care and justice outcomes
Shared language and stronger cross-sector connections across Tasmania’s first-response workforce
General practitioners can self-record the activity via myCPD
Speakers and expert panel
Join an expert line-up including:
Professor Heather Douglas, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne — leading author on non-fatal strangulation
Lucy Lord, CEO, Red Rose Foundation
Dr Meredith Stronach, General Practitioner and Forensic Medical Examiner.
Dr Christine Padgett, Lecturer at UTAS, Psychologist and brain injury researcher
Dr Chantal Roddy, Neuropsychologist
Ben Plant, Team Leader, Ambulance Tasmania
Erin Giles - Lived Experience Advocate for Change.
Who should attend?
This forum is for professionals who may be the first point of contact after non-fatal strangulation, including general practitioners, ambulance and paramedic staff, police, accident and emergency clinicians, forensic and medical practitioners, and family and sexual violence workers.
Whether you respond at the scene, in a clinic, in an emergency department, through investigation, or in ongoing specialist support, your role is part of the safety net. This forum will help connect that safety net.
Be part of a stronger first response
This forum is an opportunity to learn from specialists, listen to the lived experience of others, and build the shared understanding needed to improve outcomes for victim-survivors across Tasmania. Register now and be part of a more informed, coordinated and effective response to non-fatal strangulation.
Speakers and panelists
Dr Chantal Roddy
Chantal is a Clinical Neuropsychologist, educator, researcher and founder of Mindset Neuropsychology. With expertise in brain health, trauma, rehabilitation, and family violence, she is passionate about translating neuroscience into practical, evidence-based approaches that improve wellbeing, safety, and recovery for individuals and communities. She will be speaking about her own lived experience of non-fatal strangulation.
Professor Heather Douglas
Heather Douglas AM, FASSA is a Professor of Law at the Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne. She is also Deputy Director of the Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW). Her main area of research is criminal law with a focus on domestic and family violence. Her research on strangulation in the context on domestic and family violence has contributed to law and policy reform. Topic: Facts and mythology about non-fatal strangulation in Tasmania In her keynote speech, Professor Douglas will explore the prevalence of strangulation in intimate partner violence and the justice response and legal considerations in strangulation cases. She will discuss the Tasmanian justice setting and the judgements that have been reported, including the issues facing first responders in identifying whether strangulation has occurred, collecting evidence and making referrals. Finally, she will touch on the disparity between the perpetrator’s narrative compared with victim-survivors, and the mythology about strangulation during sex.
Lucy Lord
Lucy is the Chief Executive Officer of the Red Rose Foundation, a national organisation dedicated to ending domestic and family violence and improving responses to victim-survivors. Lucy has worked across not-for-profit organisations and statutory agencies responding to domestic abuse and violence against women and girls for more than 20 years. She is a passionate advocate for improving awareness, prevention and response to non-lethal strangulation and is committed to strengthening system responses that enhance safety and outcomes for victim-survivors. Topic: Strangulation - Silent Damage with High Risk and Harm Lucy will talk about the health consequences of strangulation, particularly in the context of domestic violence as a serious health issue and strangulation as a high-risk indicator. She will talk about where we are now, as a society, in terms of strangulation as a form of male violence against women and girls and the notion of consent. She will also talk to how the Red Rose Foundation revealed strangulation as a common feature of high-risk/high harm domestic and family violence, the histories of femicides and the foundation’s work in Queensland.
Dr Meredith Stronach
Meredith is a Staff Specialist with Correctional Health Services, Tasmanian Health Service, and a Forensic Medical Examiner. A rural generalist she brings extensive experience across emergency medicine, primary care, child health, public health and healthcare delivery for vulnerable populations. Her forensic medicine work includes assessing and documenting injuries, supporting evidence-informed clinical responses and helping practitioners recognise presentations where physical signs may be limited or absent. She is committed to equitable, trauma-informed care and to strengthening the links between health, safety and justice. Topic: Clinical markers for a general practice response to NFS Meredith will focus on the clinical markers for general practitioners and Aboriginal Health Service personnel when non-fatal strangulation (NFS) is suspected due to intimate partner violence. She will address what questions to ask and notetaking with a case of NFS to ensure effective clinical support and potential justice response. She will identify the structures of the neck, the pressure it takes to do damage, and the difference between breath choking and blood choking. Finally, she will touch on areas of potential damage and the potential hidden long-term damage inflicted on victim-survivors.
Dr Christine Padgett
Christine is a senior lecturer in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Tasmania. One of her main areas of research is brain injury caused by intimate partner violence. In particular, she is interested in the long term cognitive and psychological changes that may occur due to repeated non-fatal strangulation and head trauma, and how that might interact with the psychological trauma associated with IPV. In 2024 Christine was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, allowing her to travel to Canada and the US to talk to researchers, service providers, and people with lived experience of brain injury caused by IPV, and she is using what she learned on that trip to inform future research and the development of new specialised educational resources. Topic: Trauma and consequences of non-fatal strangulation and links to brain injury Non-fatal strangulation can cause both physiological and psychological trauma. Christine will outline the link between NFS and brain injury, and how this might present at time of injury and later. Using ‘real world’ examples, Christine will also describe how NFS can impact cognition, physical, and psychological function. She will also discuss how using a trauma-informed approach that recognises both psychological and physiological effects of NFS may improve both the victim-survivor’s experience, and ability to provide information to first responders and in subsequent interactions with healthcare, social, and legal systems.
Erin Giles
Erin Giles is an Advocate for Change, a mother of three beautiful children, living and working in the south of Tasmania, and she is a victim-survivor. She has lived through the experience of violence at the hands of an intimate partner and survived multiple violent relationships. She has also suffered systemic harm, not only during her time in prison, but also through her work as a former sex worker. She is committed to holding perpetrators of violence accountable, challenging a society that normalises abuse, and demanding accountability from systems and practitioners who fail to act. Her defiance drives her to use her experiences to advocate for young women, both within society and within systems, helping them recognise the early signs of abuse and understand that they deserve safety, respect, and a life free from violence. Young women need support, guidance, and someone who will stand beside them. My goal is to offer that support, whether inside prison, after release, or out in the community. Topic: Surviving non-fatal strangulation and the impediments to justice Erin will speak about her own experience of non-fatal strangulation and the challenges for victim-survivors in understanding the potential short and long-term impacts on personal health. She will talk about her experiences of the systems that were there to support her and the challenges to achieving justice.
Alina Thomas - Forum Host and Panel Facilitator
Alina is the CEO of Engender Equality and has an established career in the community sector with over 30 years' experience across health and community projects and a focus on women's rights, health and well-being. As CEO, Alina is a spokesperson on family violence and gender inequality; she has overseen Engender Equality’s therapeutic services, delivered comprehensive family violence prevention and response strategies, and facilitated strong advocacy at all levels for victim-survivors. She is passionate about elevating the conversation on the critical issue of non-fatal strangulation and looks forward to drawing out the many facets of the topic at the forum.
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