Judge urges more family support

Eighteen people involved in Family Court proceedings killed themselves in the past year, prompting a call from the country's top family judge for more support for anguished families.

In a speech to be delivered this morning, Chief Family Court Judge Peter Boshier says relationship breakups are linked to mental health issues and suicide, and courts should offer more support to stop children losing a parent through suicide.

"I feel for people that use our courts who eventually cannot cope and take their own lives. I am not only sad for them personally, but for the children they leave behind."

The issue of suicide among Family Court clients was "largely undiscussed".

Between May 2008 and June 2009, 18 people died from suspected suicide and four from homicide. More had died since June, he said.

About three-quarters were involved in child care disputes, and many (41 per cent) were involved in domestic violence.

"Sometimes we see families where the emotional toll associated with domestic violence or other matters before the Family Court reaches a point where individuals take their own lives.

"As a consequence ... we have the awfully sad situation where suicides occur and children are deprived of parents."

In Australia, a Family Court pilot project linked troubled court users to professional counselling and trained staff in identifying and dealing with signs of mental health problems among clients. A review of the project found it to be a success.

Judge Boshier said the court here should "undoubtedly" provide a similar response and put better support in place.

Though courts did not have a role in providing support, they were a vital link in providing access to that support.

Jo-Ann Vivian of Relationship Services said depression and feelings of helplessness were common among people going through relationship breakups.

"People can be missed and overlooked. Sometimes it can be just pointing them to someone who understands a little bit about what they're going through and can support them through it," she said.

In his speech, Judge Boshier also rounded on the nation's "simply appalling" family violence statistics and called for a radical rethink on the fight against domestic violence.

"Whatever we do, we must implement it soon ... for in the short time that it has taken for me to deliver this speech, six more family-violence-related incidents will have occurred."

In a country of 4.26 million people, there were 80,000 incidents of domestic violence a year. In the past 12 years, 200 women and children died from it.

Judge Boshier said $7m was spent on stopping-violence programmes in the past two years, but it appeared only half of attendees completed them.

His recommendations included:

* Victims having ready access to specialist Family Court lawyers

* Information sessions for victims with trained staff to help them through the process and make other referrals

* An audit of family violence programmes to see if they are working

* Tailoring programmes for different people and cultures rather than a "one-size-fits-all" approach

* Setting up a separate agency outside the Justice Ministry, with long-term oversight of offenders' rehabilitation, to deliver violence-prevention programmes and improve attendance at programmes

* Offering free self-referrals for people who think they need stop-violence help rather than requiring a court referral.

A spokesman for Justice Minister Simon Power said the minister had not yet read the speech but he was always interested in ideas that improved the criminal justice system.

- © Fairfax NZ News