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One in three reports to ComCare on family violence came from third parties

SINGAPORE — One in three callers who phoned the ComCare hotline to report family violence related matters last year were not related to the families involved, said Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee in Parliament on Tuesday (Jan 9), as he noted how the community can help spot things going awry at an early stage.

SINGAPORE — One in three callers who phoned the ComCare hotline to report family violence related matters last year were not related to the families involved, said Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee in Parliament on Tuesday (Jan 9), as he noted how the community can help spot things going awry at an early stage.

On average, the hotline receives about 60 calls on family violence issues every year, he added in his response to Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah’s (Nee Soon GRC) questions on the common causes of family violence, what more can be done to identify families at risk and the number of cases reported by non-family members.

Family service centres report that on average, there are about 1,400 cases every year where family violence is one of the presenting problems. In the past three years, the Family Justice Courts receive on average about 2,800 applications for Personal Protection Orders each year. About 40 per cent or 1,200 of such orders were issued each year.

Mr Lee said a common cause of family violence stems from the controlling behaviour of one family member over the other members, which results in intimidation or violence. Some families also face difficulties in coping with stressors such as marital, financial, or health challenges.

“(But) family violence is not a private matter,” he added.

The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) website states that family violence may include verbal abuse, threats, harassment, intimidation and controlling behaviour like limiting access to friends, relatives and finances. Some common forms of violence in families include an adult abusing or neglecting a child, violence among spouses and ex-spouses and violence towards vulnerable adults who are unable to protect themselves.

Mr Lee also cited several measures by his ministry to handle such cases. For instance, there is the National Family Violence Networking System that links various agencies to the victims, providing them with “multiple access points” to get help.

Likewise, the victims can also access the hotline services and social service agencies specialising in family violence work. Through these agencies, victims can apply for Personal Protection Orders through video-conferencing, and have access to medical services, legal advice and counselling services.

A three-year campaign, titled “Break the Silence Against Family Violence”, was also launched in November 2016 to raise awareness of family violence and equip bystanders with resources and skills to safely step in to help victims.

On the legislative front, Mr Lee said the Penal Code, the Women’s Charter and the Protection from Harassment Act provide protection for victims from violence as well. The proposed Vulnerable Adults Bill, which was put up for public consultation from Jul to Aug 2016, will be an “additional lever to allow statutory intervention in high-risk cases involving maltreatment and abuse of vulnerable adults”, he added. The proposed new law would give officials the powers to enter private premises and temporarily relocated individuals, among other things.

The ministry is finalising the provisions with the relevant stakeholders before introducing the Bill in Parliament later this year, said Mr Lee.

In her supplementary questions, Dr Lee asked how MSF assesses families that are at risk and if it uses data analytics, as is done in the United States, to assess risk levels. She also asked if there is data on how many were saved by calls made to report such matters.

Mr Lee said the ComCare hotline is just one of the touch points for victims or others to flag possible family violence cases and no hotline or agency operates alone. Regardless of how the case was reported, Mr Lee said “the network will kick in” and dialogues are held regularly to ensure the agencies are better-placed to detect these issues.

“If not for (a) network, there is always a risk of family violence case falling through the gaps,” he added.

He also noted that there are no specific data at this point. But each time the authorities are alerted to these cases, it becomes an “important first step” to addressing family violence behind closed doors, he added.

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