Few domestic bashings referred

Press, 24 June 1978, Page 6

Few domestic bashings referred

Social senice agencies in Christchurch offering marriage guidance counselling have had few referrals from he police in the last year. The acting commander of’ the Christchurch Police District (Detective Chief Super- i htendent E. G Perry) was eported in "The Press" .esterday as saying that the >olice would gladly refer narriage disputes, and problems ’ in de facto relationthips, to social welfare ’•orkers or marriage guidmce counsellors if such services were available 24 lours, and the disputants 'greed He was referring to a iomment by Mr lan Macdolald director of the Christ•hurch Marriage Guidance .ouncil. who said the police i “re not taking a construcsve role in domestic dislutes. Mr Perry said that

the article in “The Press” on j Thursday was unfairly criti- t cal of the police. i The Christchurch Marriage < Guidance Council has not had a referral for coun- < selling from the police for a I year. The last referral in ah case of domestic disturbance ’ came to the council a year < ago from a policeman ini I Leeston. Mr Macdonald said!] yesterday. The Anglican Social Ser- ; vices, which has marriage ii guidance services, has had i no referrals from the police 11 for the last year. The rate of police referral i to the Catholic Social Ser- i vices for counselling is i equally low. In the last year’c there has been one official’’ referral connected with fam-i < ily violence referred by the . Police Youth Aid Section. ’ The Campbell Centre for! 1 Counselling has had no i

police referrals, for marital; therapy or counselling after’ domestic violence since the! centre began 13 years ago. I Its director. Mr C. A. Mit-| chell, said yesterday he be-1 lieved the police must bej aware of the centre’s sen-1 vices because one of his pre-; vious counsellors was the; honorary' chaplain to the! police in Christchurch. | Policemen he knew person-! ally had occasionally re- 1 ferred adolescent problem I cases to him, but never ma-I rital matters. He believed the police’ were concerned with immediate action in situations; which were very' often diffi-1 cult and explosive. However, some cases could be follow-! ed up and the parties told of I the services available to| help them, he said. If that? was being done he thoughtl

ithe centre would have had’ ’some “spin-off.” ! He and his counsellors 'had “plenty of verbal inforimation” from their clients ;■ that in domestic disputes ,the police “just didn't want (to know,” said Mr Mitchell, i , The Christchurch police I say they attend 20 to 25 leases of marital disturbance! a day, according to a state-’ ’ment in “The Press” on; Monday. Mr Macdonald maintains : that these figures and the ’police referrals do not add; ’up to a constructive policy of contact with social agencies for long-term theraiputic counselling. I “I know that police inter- , I vention in family disputes is i fraught with potential danger,” said Mr Macdonald. He ’was aware that policemen had died after intervening. I “It is an extremely sensi-i'

tive and explosive area, and; I readily acknowledge that! the police are able to take the heat out of many dangerous situations,” he said. "But doing that alone is’ not necessarily effective in the long-term.” Potentially violent situ-; ations defused by police. ■ intervention could break out’ ' with greater intensity be- i cause the cause of the vio-’ ’lence was not being treated, said Mr Macdonald. His council, and other i social agencies, were thereIfore asking the police to improve their skills of referral. He accepted the police ’ reply' that parties to violent. disputes frequently did not want to be referred to social agencies or social workers. But the success in getting a referral depended largely on; the skill and conviction with ’which it was made. j

I “We believe this is a skill’ ’that can be taught to police ’officers,” he said. While he agreed that longterm treatment was not considered a police function, Mr Macdonald said he maintained his view that the police’ ’must develop a greateracceptance of their social’ work role. - Social work agencies in I i Christchurch are anxious that the police be well informed about the services ■ available. In recent months; they have been having informal discussions about ways to improve communication and the flow of information. Next month the Medical’ Legal Group will hold a. Workshop on domestic vio-! ■ fence in marital disputes and i the roles of the various' ( agencies concerned. i