Counselling should be provided in safe homes, says Tessie Tahiti Soi.
A safe home is a home that provides an alternative shelter to survivors of violence.
Tessie is a social worker and clinical manager at Family Support Centre.
She has been involved with service providers, assisting survivors of gender-based violence all her working life.
“We see that a lot of survivors (in safe homes) stay longer than the two weeks. And while they are there, my belief is that counselling must still continue,” she said.
She furthers that it is important to get to know how they feel and help plan ahead.
“These should be integrated into the safe homes. Because you see women coming in, going back to their husbands and coming in again….the cycle continues.”
Adding onto that, Tessie says the staff also need counselling.
Lack of on-going counselling is a challenge for service providers, particularly FSC.
There are also other challenges faced, such as less staff, lack of child protection service, accommodation and lack of knowledge (on medical consequences, service providers and free legal services, etc.) to name a few.
The Family Support Centre operates Mondays to Fridays, from 8am to 4pm. You can reach them on telephone number 324 8246.
In any trouble, following are contacts to other service providers you can refer to:
- Meri Seif Lain – 7222 1234
- 1-Tok Kaunselin Helpim Lain – 7150 8000
(Picture: secome.org)