Our Mission and Approach

VAMHN exists to strengthen the evidence base and reshape systems so that people affected by violence and abuse can live well, with improved mental health, social wellbeing, and access to survivor-centred systems that support long-term healing.

The Case for Change

Responses to violence and abuse remain structurally misaligned with long-term recovery. Systems are still organised around crisis management rather than sustained wellbeing. Survivors are too often required to navigate fragmented services, short funding cycles and narrowly defined outcomes that fail to capture what living well actually entails.

Mental health frameworks continue to prioritise pathology and symptom reduction over agency, stability and social wellbeing. Outcome measurement is inconsistent and rarely grounded in survivor-defined priorities. Without shared, credible measures of wellbeing, services cannot be designed effectively, commissioners cannot invest strategically, and impact cannot be assessed meaningfully.

Although lived experience is increasingly referenced in policy and research, survivor leadership is not yet embedded in governance, funding decisions or system design. Participation is too often consultative rather than structural. This limits accountability and constrains innovation.

​Incremental adjustments are insufficient. What is required is coordinated, survivor-informed systems reform grounded in rigorous evidence, ethical leadership and sustained cross-sector collaboration.


Our Model for Change

Advancing survivor-defined wellbeing

Developing shared, strengths-based outcome frameworks to guide research, commissioning and services.

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Embedding survivor leadership

Ensuring survivors shape research, governance and strategy as leaders.

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Strengthening services and evaluation

Supporting frontline organisations to evaluate, improve and scale survivor-centred interventions.

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Influencing policy and systems

Translating evidence into tools, briefings and strategic engagement with key stakeholders.

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Our Strategic Priorities (2026-2029)

Build National Evaluation Infrastructure

Scale the VAMHN Evaluation Lab to provide accessible, ethical and methodologically robust evaluation support across the sector.

Set the Standard for Survivor-Defined Wellbeing

Develop and embed shared outcome frameworks that shape research, commissioning and frontline practice.

Institutionalise Survivor Leadership

Move from consultative engagement to structurally embedded governance, co-production and sector-wide ethical standards.

Drive Policy and Funding Reform

Translate rigorous, survivor-informed evidence into commissioning models and funding decisions that prioritise long-term recovery.

How We Work

Our approach is characterised by:
  • Rigorous and transparent research methods
  • Ethical, supported survivor leadership
  • Cross-sector collaboration
  • Long-term systems focus over crisis response

Support and Partnership

​We collaborate with funders, policymakers, survivors, researchers and service providers committed to strengthening systems and improving long-term wellbeing after violence and abuse.