COUNSELLING PROGRAMME

Mdm Claire Chiang See Ngoh asked the Minister for Community Development, since the amendments to the Women's Charter in May 1997, how many referrals have been made to his Ministry by the Subordinate Courts for mandatory counselling of abusers; how his Ministry implements and evaluates the effectiveness of the counselling programme; and if a plan has been put in place to increase the pool of counsellors and support resources for handling such cases.

Mr Abdullah Tarmugi: Since the introduction of mandatory counselling up to July 1998, the Family Court has referred 199 cases for counselling. Of these, 144 cases were for counselling of perpetrators only, and 55 were cases where both the perpetrators and victims were referred for counselling.

The mandatory counselling programme is still relatively new. It would be too early to assess its full effectiveness at this point in time.

In administering the programme, the Ministry processes and undertakes initial assessment of all cases referred by the Court before referring cases to counsellors from the Ministry or appointed social service agencies for mandatory counselling. The Ministry coordinates and monitors the work of the appointed social service agencies and the counsellors.

Training programmes are in place to develop a pool of qualified social workers and counsellors with the competence and skill to deal with family violence cases.

MCD has organised a number of training workshops, case-conferences and regular dialogue sessions with social service agencies. It has also commissioned agencies like the Counselling and Care Centre and the Family Resource and Training Centre to conduct a number of specialised courses for social service agencies. Among the courses covered are Management of Family Violence, Couples in Violent Relationships and Working with Perpetrators.

There are now 25 social service agencies providing mandatory counselling up from 15 in July 1997. All agencies providing mandatory counselling services receive Government funding on a per capita basis.