{"id":96391,"date":"2026-10-29T20:57:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T12:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=96391"},"modified":"2026-10-29T20:57:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T12:57:01","slug":"anti-violence-helpline-reports-jump-nearly-50-in-2025-amid-greater-vigilance-msf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=96391","title":{"rendered":"Anti-violence helpline reports jump nearly 50% in 2025 amid greater vigilance: MSF"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>Reports from law enforcement agencies more than tripled to 2,850 last year, from 941 the previous year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>One contributing factor was that from September 2024, police officers responding to domestic violence incidents involving a child or vulnerable adult are required to notify NAVH. This allows safety concerns to be assessed and appropriate referrals to be made where necessary, said MSF.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>Reports from social service agencies rose 46 per cent to 2,813 in 2025, from 1,923 the previous year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>Meanwhile, those from the education sector increased 45 per cent to 2,056, from 1,418.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">MSF said teachers and school counsellors are trained to identify signs of possible abuse or domestic violence, including unexplained injuries, changes in a student&#8217;s behaviour or emotional well-being, frequent unexplained absences, or disclosures of violence at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>\u201cThis increase in reports from these sectors suggests continued vigilance from frontline professionals and agencies in identifying suspected abuse concerns, alongside sustained reporting by members of the public,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\">EMERGENCY RESPONSES MORE THAN DOUBLE\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>The MSF report also found that its Domestic Violence Emergency Response Team (DVERT) responded to 1,439 domestic violence incidents last year, more than double the 675 recorded in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>A significant proportion of these incidents involved suspected spousal abuse and child abuse, MSF said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>DVERT responds jointly with the police to high-risk domestic violence cases involving immediate safety concerns for victim-survivors. The team can be activated through referrals from the police or NAVH.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>MSF said the increase in responses was likely partly due to DVERT&#8217;s expansion to all seven police divisions islandwide in September 2024, which made crisis intervention and support more accessible to affected families.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>It added that each response is counted separately, including instances where the same family required assistance on multiple occasions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>Depending on the circumstances, DVERT officers may provide immediate safety planning, crisis intervention and practical support at the scene before connecting families with follow-up services.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Social service professionals said such timely intervention is crucial, as domestic violence situations can escalate quickly.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe value of DVERT is not only in responding to an immediate incident but also in facilitating early identification of risks and helping families access support before concerns potentially escalate further,\u201d said Ms Tee Hui Wen, centre head of Whispering Hearts Family Service Centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">She added that earlier referrals and information sharing help social workers assess risks, plan for safety and coordinate further interventions.<\/p>\n<h2>OVER 1,100 EMERGENCY ORDERS ISSUED\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>A total of 1,151 emergency orders were issued in 2025, following amendments to the Women&#8217;s Charter that took effect in January that year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>The amendments empowered DVERT officers to issue emergency orders temporarily restraining perpetrators from committing violence against family members while victim-survivors seek longer-term protection orders from the courts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>Of the emergency orders issued, 80 per cent were against male perpetrators \u2013 with those aged between 30 and 49 accounting for the largest age group.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>Spouses of victim-survivors accounted for 674 \u2013 or 59 per cent \u2013 of the orders issued.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span>The remaining orders involved other family relationships, including parents (154), children (141), siblings (138), relatives (31) and former spouses (13).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Data on how many emergency orders were followed by applications for longer-term personal protection orders is currently not available, MSF said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A spokesperson from the Singapore Police Force (SPF) told CNA that breaching an emergency order \u2013 including a domestic exclusion order, stay away order or no contact order \u2013 is an arrestable offence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe police take reports of suspected emergency order breaches seriously and will investigate where there is reason to suspect that an offence has been committed, including consulting the Attorney-General&#8217;s Chambers (AGC) where required,\u201d SPF said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.channelnewsasia.com\/singapore\/msf-domestic-violence-helpline-emergency-abuse-children-6495881\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reports from law enforcement agencies more than tripled to 2,850 last year, from 941 the previous year.\u00a0 One contributing factor was that from September 2024,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/96392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}