Programmes to Help and Heal Families

This article focuses on Family Court programmes that are available for all the parties to a divorce, including children.

The Family Court runs a number of programmes to fulfil its mission of helping families in distress in a holistic manner. The programmes of the Family Court are run by the counsellors and psychologists of the Family and Juvenile Justice Centre (‘FJJC’). This third and final article of the three-part series of articles on Family Court programmes by Deputy Registrar Lim Hui Min of the Family Court sets out information on the various programmes to help and heal families which are available at the Family Court.

Saving Marriages

Project Heart (healing and reconciliation therapeutic programme)

Started in the year 2001, this is a pilot programme intended to provide professional intervention for marriages in crisis, in order to bring about a reconciliation of the couple. The couples who are expected to use this programme are those who are facing a crisis in their marriage and are interested in salvaging it.

When a potential divorcee contacts selected lawyers (who are taking part in this programme) for legal advice, and he or she is undecided on whether to proceed with the matter, the lawyers will refer him or her to a counselling agency. In appropriate cases, the potential divorcee and his or her spouse will be referred for counselling and other marriage enrichment programmes. The potential divorcee will have a choice of counselling to be provided by a secular organisation, or by a culturally or religiously specific organisation. The organisations taking part in this programme are:

• Eagles Mediation and Counselling Centre (‘EMCC’);
• Fei Yue Family Service Centre;
• Wesley Methodist Counselling Centre;
• SINDA Family Service Centre;
• Shan You Counselling Centre;
• Family Life Society; and
• Action On Family Life and Marriage Enrichment (‘AFLAME’).
  

All lawyers — If you are not one of the selected law firms taking part in this programme, but you would like to refer your clients for Project Heart, you can write to the FJJC (No 3 Havelock Square, Singapore 059725) with your request.

Alleviating Financial Distress

Project Hope (helping our parties early)

In this programme, the FJJC will arrange for maintenance for financially-strapped applicants (for maintenance summons cases under Part VIII of the Women’s Charter) to be given some assistance in meeting their basic needs and those of their children, pending the determination of the case in court. However, applicants will have to pass a means test first. They will be given one-off financial assistance in the form of NTUC vouchers for daily necessities, and then referred to the Community Development Councils for long-term assistance, if necessary. This programme is administered by the Family Court in collaboration with the five Community Development Councils.

All lawyers — You can inform your clients who are going to apply for maintenance (under Part VIII of the Women’s Charter) to mention to the Family Court counter staff that they are interested in applying for Project Hope when the staff give them the maintenance application form (which is blue in colour) to fill in.

Facilitating Access

Project Impact

Project Impact is a group workshop for divorcing/divorced parents, which they can either attend voluntarily, or be ordered to attend by the court as part of the orders made in the custody and access proceedings. The workshop seeks to give insights to divorcing parents on how to cope with issues arising from a divorce or separation, such as dealing with their own or their children’s grief, the re-adjustment of lifestyles after a divorce, new financial situations, and the balancing of work and home responsibilities. Parents are also taught about the impact of a divorce or separation on themselves and their children, how to get help from the community, and other mechanisms to cope. Failure to attend the classes or sessions if ordered to do so by the court will result in the case being brought up for review by the court.

All lawyers — If your clients would like to sign up for Project Impact, you can either write to the FJJC directly with the request, or fill in the Project Impact/Project KIDS-Line form (pink in colour) that you can get from the PTC judge. It should be noted that the two parties to a divorce will be put in different workshop sessions. They will not have to attend the same session.

Project Contact

This programme seeks to facilitate access in cases where the divorcing couple is unwilling to co-operate in co-parenting and has a highly acrimonious and/or dysfunctional relationship with each other. The community agencies involved in this programme will provide a conducive and neutral environment for a non-custodial parent to have access to the child/children in the presence of a trained social worker/counsellor. This is in contrast to many arrangements where access takes place in Neighbourhood Police Posts or fast food restaurants. During the supervised contact sessions, the non-custodial parents are taught skills to effectively bond with their children. The presence of professional counsellors during such supervised contact will ensure that the contact is harmonious and fruitful. The period of supervision may run up to a year, but will usually only be for a few months. Such intensive and long-term intervention will encourage the development of healthy relationships between both parents and the children.

The community agencies involved in this programme are:

• REACH FSC;
• Tanjong Pagar FSC;
• Serangoon Moral FSC; and
• Loving Heart Multi Service Centre.
  

All lawyers — Please note that participation in this programme is subject to the availability of counsellors at the FSCs to do the supervision. Most of the FSCs only have slots available within office hours on weekdays. There is also a charge of about $50 per hour for supervised access and about $25 for a one-way supervised transfer. These charges must be borne by the clients using this programme, though the individual FSC has the discretion to waive this fee. The PTC judge or the trial judge hearing the custody and access matter would have information on the addresses of the FSCs, the availability of slots and the relevant charges. The PTC judge or trial judge ordering this programme will have to make orders as to which party is to bear the costs of the Project Contact session.

Guiding and Supporting Children at Risk

Youth family care programme (a juvenile court programme)

In this programme, young people and children from the Juvenile Court system, who belong to highly dysfunctional families, are matched with sponsor families who act as their mentors. The mentor families befriend the juveniles, provide them with direction and guidance, and model positive family relationships for them. Touch Community Services is our community justice partner for this programme, recruiting the volunteers for it. The Singapore Children’s Society helps in the training of these volunteers. In addition, the Ramakrishna Mission, Pertapis and other Muslim agencies are coming on board, to provide a multi-religious alternative in the programme.

All lawyers — If you feel that the children in the divorce proceedings or the proceedings under the Guardianship of Infants Act (‘GIA’), for which you are the solicitor, may benefit from this programme, you may request the PTC judge, or the judge hearing the ancillary matters or GIA proceedings to make arrangements for these children to participate in this programme. The judge will refer the whole family for a Family Justice Team session (see below for details of this), and if the family is assessed to be suitable for this programme, the FJJC will organise a mentor family for the children in about four to six weeks.

Please note that this programme is subject to the availability of mentor families.

KIDS-Line counselling (kids in difficult situations)

KIDS-Line is an interactive CD-ROM which explores issues of family violence and divorce using cartoon animation. Individual counselling has been provided to children caught in high conflict custody and access disputes, or in family violence situations using KIDS-Line. KIDS-Line is mainly meant to be used in counselling work with young children, of ages seven to 10 years old. Where a counsellor assesses that a child will continue to need support, even after the case in which the child is involved has been resolved, he will invite the child to join a children’s support group. Group counselling for the children’s group will be conducted using the KIDS-Line. The programme aims to raise the children’s awareness on family violence and divorce and provides information on how to get help if they are in distress. It also addresses the feelings that would surface in a divorce situation.

All lawyers — If your clients would like to sign up their children for the KIDS-Line programme, you can either write to the FJJC directly with the request (at No. 3 Havelock Square, Singapore 059725), or you can fill in the Project Impact/Project KIDS-Line form (which is pink in colour) and send it to the FJJC. You can ask the PTC judge for a copy of the Project Impact/Project KIDS-Line form.

Project Save (substance abuse and violence elimination)

A study of over 1,000 Personal Protection Order cases (in the years 2000–2001) has been done by the FJJC. It was found that approximately 25% of the respondents in these cases appeared to have possible problems with alcohol use.¹ In the light of this research, Project Save was set up, to provide counselling intervention for abusers who consume alcohol, in order to help them eliminate their alcohol addiction, and in addition to tackle the issue of their use of family violence. At the intake counselling stage, an applicant for a personal protection order would be asked to fill in a questionnaire, designed to determine whether the respondent is an alcohol abuser. At the mentions stage, the respondent will be requested to fill in a more detailed questionnaire. The counsellor will then make recommendations to the court, based on the contents of the questionnaire, on whether it would be appropriate to order the respondent to attend the Project Save programme. Those respondents who are ordered to go for this programme will attend mandatory counselling at the Community Addiction Management Programme (‘CAMP’), in the Institute of Mental Health (‘IMH’). These cases will be channelled through and funded by MCDS. Under CAMP, specialised counselling for alcohol addiction will be provided in addition to addressing the violence issues.

All lawyers — If your clients would like a referral to CAMP, please notify the Family Court One judge at the mention, or the trial judge. Alternatively, if there are no family violence proceedings in court, information on CAMP can be provided by the FJJC — just write in to the Family and Juvenile Justice Centre, No 3 Havelock Square, Singapore 059725 to request for the information.

Family Justice Team

Under the Family Justice Team programme, where there are multiple, hotly contested and particularly acrimonious proceedings involving the same family, and when there are children in the family (ie there are proceedings such as family violence, maintenance, divorce, guardianship, and juvenile court proceedings), a team of social workers and psychologists will be assigned to deal with the case, in order to provide counselling services for the whole family (these sessions are known as ‘Family Transformation Conferences’), and to ensure that all issues are tackled during the counselling sessions. Programmes for the whole family — or for each member of the family — will also be recommended.

Where appropriate, the multiple proceedings (or at least a few of them) may be heard by the same judge. If there are different proceedings in different courts, the different courts will be kept informed about the progress of the case in the other courts.

Public Education

KIDS-Line

As stated earlier, KIDS-Line is an interactive CD-ROM which explores issues of family violence and divorce using cartoon animation. The FJJC does group work with young children of ages seven to 10 years old using this CD-ROM, in order to raise their awareness about issues of family violence and divorce. Working with children at an early stage to address their feelings, and to educate them on non-violence, will help prevent intergenerational violence from taking place in future.

Currently, the FJJC is working with the Ministry of Education with the aim of training teacher-counsellors to conduct the group sessions. FSCs who are interested in being involved in this programme are also welcome to apply to the FJJC for training. The long-term plan is for the FJJC to provide the training and for the primary schools and identified FSCs to work together to provide support and help to affected children.

Family violence, divorce, etc

The deputy registrars, psychologists, and counsellors of the FJJC regularly give talks on family violence, divorce and other family-law related issues to social service agencies and other community groups.

Lim Hui Min
Deputy Registrar
Family and Juvenile Court

Endnote

1 Subordinate Courts (December 2000). Alcohol or Drug Abuse: Relationship to Domestic Violence. Research Bulletin Issue No 25.