PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES /CHILD  PERPETRATOR SUPPORT  UNIT

Mission Statement  

To ensure that members of the public benefit from a quality psychological service to improve the mental health and psychological wellbeing of clients (i.e. victims of violence; children and adults) and to provide appropriate psychological treatment programmes, designed and targeted to assist perpetrators of domestic violence to develop skills to reduce reoffending and to adopt socially acceptable behaviours.

Psychological interventions are carried out with the consent of the clients or through a court order.

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE SECTOR ​ 

1.      Sector Strategic Goals towards realizing the vision of the unit 

a)  Children become competent witness and their Psychological and emotional stability is ensured.  

b) Children victim of violence become more resilient through evidence based psychological treatment services.

c) The child's voice is heard in all decisions concerning court proceedings in which the child is involved and that the child's best interest is advocated for throughout the judicial proceedings through the Guardian Ad Litem.

d) Perpetrators of DV are better able to manage their emotions and control their aggressive behavior.

e)  Equip divorced/separated parents with tools and skills so that they learn how to work together to talk to their children about divorce, raise them as a united front, and prevent future problems. By improving communication and imparting conflict resolution skills such a support will help develop a co-parenting plan for the future that is in the best interest of the child or children.

f)  Capacity building of front-liners and mental health professionals.

Strengths 

2a.  Mechanism in place  

The Psychological services unit is an independent unit providing services to clients [victims of violence and perpetrators of violence] referred to this ministry.19 psychologists are attached to this section. The unit is under the supervision of senior most psychologist/senior psychologist of the ministry.

• Psychological services are also provided to other stakeholders such as the DPP, the Court, the police and other ministries as and when required.
• The unit also attends to cases of harassment/sexual harassment at work.
• A victim /witness support service has been set up at the level of the children's court in order to provide pretrial and post-trial support to child victim/witnesses and to accompany them during court proceedings. This is in respect of budgetary measure announced in the budget 2021-2022. At present one psychologist from the existing pool is posted at the children's court for offer of pretrial support to child victim/witnesses and offenders. Psychological services are also provided to other stakeholders as and when required.​​
• The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that State parties shall assure to the child, who is capable of forming his or her own views, the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. For this purpose, the child shall particularly be provided the opportunity to be     heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law.
• To this end, following the proclamation of the children's Act 2020 the Guardian Ad Litem Programme has been set up on a temporary basis at the level of the Ministry. The section had received expert assistance through EU [TAIEX] and a two days webinar was organized where valuable expert assistance was received with regard to the implementation of the programme. An expression of interest has been launched for professionals to act as Guardian Ad Litem for children involved in the justice system.
• An on-call system is on so as to provide a 24-hour psychological service in emergency cases.  
• Psychological tools and equipment are available in the unit [in terms of psychometric testing and books/journals] in order to ensure evidence-based evaluation and assessment and to further contribute towards the continuous professional development of the mental health professionals.  
• A multidisciplinary approach is adopted in all psychological interventions being carried out.  
• The unit operates in collaboration with other stakeholders such as the office of the Director, Public Prosecutions, the Police, Probation Office, Prison officers, etc. Such a network helps in provision of prompt assistance to clients in need of psychological support.
  

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