Steps proposed to compel abusers to go for rehabilitation

About 10 per cent of people who abuse their loved ones, especially in the more serious cases, do not turn up for counselling sessions when asked to do so.

Soon, they may not have a choice.

Legislative measures are about to be put in place that will compel them to go.

The Taskforce on Family Violence, in a report released yesterday, said enforcement needs to be enhanced.

This will include moves like making it an offence to breach counselling orders, as well as mandatory assessment and treatment orders.

It also recommended that the Government make the breach of non-access, non-visitation and non-communication orders an arrestable offence.

These are new orders under the Women's Charter, which take reference from the Vulnerable Adults Act.

A non-access order prohibits a person from entering and remaining for a set amount of time in any place that the vulnerable person frequents.

Another type of order will stop a person from visiting or communicating with the victim.

Making it an offence will allow the authorities to take immediate enforcement action and prevent any escalation of harm.

These recommendations are part of efforts to take abusers to task and beef up their rehabilitation process.

Pave executive director Sudha Nair, commenting on those who breach counselling orders, said: "We cannot compel them to come. They tell us to 'go fly a kite' (leave them alone), and there's nothing we can do.

"We try different ways to engage them but they don't want to come, so we need to tighten the legislative levers to compel them."

Pave is a social service agency that specialises in tackling family violence.

The task force also recommended that the courts be allowed to make mandatory assessment and treatment orders against those who have personal protection orders filed against them.

The courts now do not have any power to force someone with mental health conditions to undergo mandatory assessment or treatment, even if the underlying condition likely contributed to or exacerbated the risk of the person's violent behaviour.

According to data from family service centres, about 39 per cent of households with family violence issues had a person with mental health concerns.

The task force report said ordering mandatory treatment may be invasive, and added that safeguards must be in place, such as requiring an assessment and recommendation from a court-appointed psychiatrist on the suitability of the mandatory treatment, before a mandatory treatment order can be made by the courts.

Another recommendation is that the Government should study the feasibility of requiring high-risk perpetrators to undergo a structured residential programme for rehabilitation.

This ensures that they are physically separated from the people they inflict violence on and get the treatment they need to turn over a new leaf.