It is heartening to observe the family justice system's pivot towards more therapeutic applications of family law (More couples choosing less contentious divorce process, May 23).

With more than 7,000 divorce cases in Singapore annually and rising interest in the long-term outcomes of children and families affected by divorce, it is imperative that stakeholders adopt an honest and holistic approach towards addressing these issues.

It is important to look at what more can be done to achieve balanced and positive outcomes that avoid aggravating conflict and emotional wounds, and focus also on the healing and restoration of family ties.

There are three areas of conflict in Singapore's family justice framework that must be enhanced.

First, we must decisively move away from using the legal system as the primary and foremost channel for resolving family conflict.

Taking the legal route often means increased acrimony, which cannot be conducive to repairing frayed family ties.

Mr Oh Ee Hoe argued that "first responders" in a divorce should be trained counsellors and family therapists, and not lawyers ('First responders' in divorce should be counsellors, not lawyers, Oct 13, 2018). I hope there will be progress in this regard.

Second, after best efforts at marriage recovery are exhausted and couples enter the legal phase, we must adopt the most appropriate legal processes to bring the matter to its conclusion.

These should be processes that are not unnecessarily adversarial, but are therapeutic, with the objective being to get both parties to reach an informed, amicable outcome for themselves and their children. This may not reduce the time needed or simplify the divorce process, but would prevent opportunistic lawyering and unnecessary hostility, which could have a severe impact on innocent children.

Finally, Singapore's family-related legislation and family court processes must be reformed to better protect families. The current Women's Charter and court processes impose unfair penalties on Singaporean men in terms of child custody and access, spousal and child maintenance, and housing options, among other things.

Shared care and custody of children post-divorce should be legislated and proactively implemented, as research in many countries has shown it to be in the best interests of the children.

Ian Chan Eng Kiat