Help for violent husbands needed

Press, 27 September 1982, Page 15

Help for violent husbands needed

When the Adelaide police attend violent domestic disputes, they have a team of mental health professionals to call on to help them sort the situation out, according to Mr Tim Williams, a clinical psychologist working in the Christchurch Community Health Service.

Mr Williams has just returned from a three-week working holiday in Australia, where he visited, among other groups, the Adelaide Community Crisis Care Unit.

The unit has 20 trained social workers and psychologists who are available 24 hours a day to go out to domestic disputes and similar community crises. . “About half their calls come from the police and involve domestic disputes.’’ he said.

"When they get to the scene, they .see that the wife is safe, or maybe see that she goes to a women’s refuge centre, and then they sit down with the man who has been beating her up and talk to him,” Mr Williams said.

“It is the one time that you can make constructive contact with a violent man, immediately after the event — when he is at his lowest, feeling insecure, desperate, and isolated. The Crisis Care team talk to him, help him see he has control over himself, and then get him to come in and see them the next morning, while the previous night’s behaviour is still fresh in his mind.” he said.

Intensive counselling followed, and the contact continued with follow-up visits, said Mr Williams.

“It's the only group I know of that does this sort of thing, and it seems to be an effective method of combat-

ing domestic violence.” he said.

“Women’s refuges are very valuable in that they provide shelter for the victims of domestic violence. But I have always been concerned that there is no help for men. and nowhere for them to go. so that all they can do is be violent again.”

Mr Williams said there would be plenty of scope for a similar group to be set up in Christchurch, but funding and motivation would both be difficult. “I think it would have to be a group of professionals, well trained in counselling, because they must have the necessary co-operation with the police as well as the credibility and authority to intervene in crises,” he said.

For the group to be professional, it would have to have funding, he said.

Mr Williams also visited the Agoraphobia Society in Australia, and has come back with ideas for a Christchurch group of agoraphobics (people who fear crowds) which is in the process of setting itself up. About one in 100 to 150 people had some form of agoraphobia, to some degree, ranging from those who avoid going into the heart of the city but who would go to the local shopping centre, to those who are housebound because they are afraid to go out the door, Mr Williams said.