Family Support Centres — Papua New Guinea's Hospital-Based One-Stop Model for Family and Sexual Violence Survivors

Papua New Guinea's National Department of Health has operated Family Support Centres (FSCs) since 2003, embedding medical treatment, psychosocial support, legal-system referral and, where available, emergency shelter for survivors of family and sexual violence inside provincial and district hospitals across the country.
The flagship centre at Port Moresby General Hospital was seeing an average of 15 clients a day before a 2016–17 refurbishment, funded by the Australian Government (PGK 831,111.49) and completed in April 2017, added capacity for a further 12 clients a day — over 1,000 additional women and children a year, according to the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby.
UNICEF's 2016 report was the first independent formative evaluation of the FSC model since its 2003 introduction, assessing relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and equity. UNFPA followed in 2023 with a 104-page baseline capacity assessment of centres nationwide, examining staffing, equipment and physical resources — a step taken precisely because capacity is known to vary sharply between centres, from well-staffed hospital units in the capital to under-resourced provincial sites.
FSCs work alongside the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary's separate Family and Sexual Violence Units, giving survivors both a health-system and a police entry point into PNG's response system.

Read the full analysis: https://femilipng.org/helping-family-and-sexual-violence-survivors-in-papua-new-guinea-evaluation-of-femili-png-lae-operations-2014-2020/