ENGAGING SOCIAL WORKERS
MSF partners with community-based Family Violence Specialist Centres, Child Protection Specialist Centres, Family Service Centres and crisis shelters to provide support and intervention services, including casework and counselling for family violence victims and perpetrators, said SPF in its media factsheet.
MSF’s Child Protective Service and Adult Protective Service also step in to manage “high-risk and egregious cases” which require statutory intervention under the Children and Young Persons Act, Vulnerable Adults Act and Women’s Charter.
“If violence or sexual offences have been committed, the community-based centres work closely with the police to support victims through the process of reporting and investigations of the alleged offences,” said SPF.
In “clear cut” cases where victims agree to be referred to social services, social workers would first work with the victim to understand “the best way to engage the perpetrator” once they receive the police report, said social worker Ms Lam.
“This is because some perpetrators may feel very ashamed if somebody calls them or they may feel intruded if we call them during their working hours. But some of them may prefer to be called at a certain time or a certain place, or to have the topic broached in a certain manner. So we will speak to the victim first then we’ll work with the perpetrator.”
With perpetrators, the first thing to establish is the “no-go zone”, said Ms Lam.
“So what does the law say? What does PPO entail? What are some of the things that are considered not acceptable as far as Singapore law is concerned within the family? After that, we will establish reasonable plans that they can keep to.”
Managing the risk at home is key, as social workers want the family to stay together as much as possible, added Ms Lam.
To do this, they work with perpetrators to understand why they choose violence as a method to get what they want or what are the things they aren’t happy with.
“We are not justifying the act of violence, but we want to give them that platform to talk about it before we can talk to them about how they can then change and what are some alternative ways of intervention at home,” she said.
If a family is ready to receive help, social workers would take about three months to work through any issues that may cause the violence to take place. This “recreates a norm in terms of interaction pattern at home”, explained Ms Lam.
Another six months is required to maintain that norm of “non-negative, neutral interaction”.
Once a family is more ready to receive help, usually at the nine-month or one-year mark, social workers then work with the family on “positive communication”, such as how to share negative information or emotions in a non-judgemental manner.
“So usually for family violence situations, it takes at least one year, one-and-a-half years, for us to establish from negative communication with acts of violence to neutral to positive communication,” said Ms Lam.
WHEN VICTIMS ARE “AMBIVALENT”
However, in cases where the victim is “ambivalent about their situation”, Ms Lam said police would ask if they would be open to a call with a social worker before deciding if they want to engage their help.
During this call, social workers would attempt to address some of the victim’s concerns.
“More often than not, victims’ concerns are all the common ‘what ifs’. What if the acts of violence get worse after police and social workers get involved? What if I can no longer stay with my family when that happens? What if the perpetrator feels very ashamed and that spells the end of our relationship? What if nobody actually believes me?” said Ms Lam.
“What if I make a police report again, and then later on I’m being threatened with other things or the perpetrator refuses to give finances and all that, then what can I actually do about it?”
And in cases where the victim simply does not agree to speak to a social worker, Ms Lam works with police officers to understand the situation without getting exact details on the family involved, so she can provide resources or information via the officer.