Men’s Referral Service

1300 766 491

Monday - Friday 8:00am to 9:00pm

Saturday - Sunday 9:00am to 5:00pm

The Men’s Referral Service (external link) is a men's family violence telephone counselling, information and referral service and is a central point of contact for men taking responsibility for their violent behaviour.

Funded under the State Government's Safe Homes, Families, Communities: Tasmania’s action plan for family and sexual violence 2019-2022, No To Violence provide this toll free services in Tasmania as a place for men to seek advice and support, as well as providing a 'cold call' service, contacting male perpetrators of family violence after a reported family violence incident in order to actively engage men in a conversation at this high risk time.

Defendant Health Liaison Service

Northern Tasmania: 6777 1204

North West Tasmania: 6464 3094

Southern Tasmania: 6166 0486

Monday - Friday 8:30am to 5:00pm

The Defendant Health Liaison Service offers support to people who have been charged with an offence or have been served with a Police Family Violence Order or a Family Violence Order by assisting them to access appropriate health and welfare services in the Government and non-Government sectors.

The Service is separate from the Police and not directly part of the court or legal system. The Defendant Health Liaison Officer cannot provide legal advice.

Support includes

• Someone to talk to you about your current situation
• Referral and information about other services
• Assistance in understanding Police Family Violence and Family Violence Orders

The service is located within the Department of Health and Human Services Forensic Mental Health Service (external link).

MENS Program

1300 364 277

Funded under the State Government's Safe Homes, Families, Communities: Tasmania’s action plan for family and sexual violence 2019-2022, Relationships Australia (external link) deliver the Men Engaging New Strategies (MENS) Program, designed for men who have hurt or abused their partners or ex-partners and are ready to take responsibility for their behaviour.

This program is delivered by a skilled team of practitioners who help men to respond to situations and challenges. Their practitioners have extensive experience and qualifications in social work, psychology, counselling or community work and provide individual counselling sessions throughout the program as well as some group work.

Referrals into this free 20-24 week program can be made by self-referral, or via the courts, police, or other service providers.

For more information, visit the MENS Program website (external link).

Family Violence Offender Intervention Program

Burnie/Devonport: 6477 7169

Launceston: 6777 2895

Hobart: 6165 6724

Under the Sentencing Act 1997 Magistrates have the ability to sentence male family violence perpetrators to the Family Violence Offender Intervention Program (FVOIP). The program is facilitated by Community Corrections and is combined with a period of direct supervision with Community Corrections.

About FVOIP

The program is based on a cognitive behavioral therapy model (CBT) and involves some Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) which targets key themes that are important for creating respectful relationships.

• The program involves two individual sessions followed by 20 groups sessions over a 10 week period
• After you finish the group sessions, you will be asked to do an additional individual session to complete your final safety plan using the content you learned in the program
• Each group session will take approximately 2.5 hours
• The whole program runs for approximately 50 hours

Program Content

• Module 1: Thinking Skills. Developed in a way to support participants to begin thinking about thinking. Each group will be walked through the CBT pathway to recognise how their core beliefs influence the way they think and feel, resulting in an action/consequence. Respect in relationships will be a core focus in this module to relate their offending behaviour to the content, and begin introducing new ways of thinking and challenging negative core beliefs and thought patterns.
• Module 2: Managing Mood States. This module focuses on introducing skills and strategies such as time-out, mindfulness and how to build positive experiences. In order to successfully achieve this, the content focuses on identifying emotions and emotional regulation, for both primary and secondary emotions. Participants are asked to reflect on what barriers they may face in being able to do this.
• Module 3: Key relationship skills. Developed to identify negative and positive communication styles within relationships, and how to improve and practice respectful listening, negotiation and problem solving.
• Module 4: Alcohol, drug use and abusive practices. The sessions in module 4 work towards linking drug and alcohol use to abusive practices (where relevant). This is with the purpose of developing a safety plan and providing information and community support options to all participants.
• Module 5: Victim impact and empathy. FVOIP focuses on developing a better understanding for participants around their own thoughts, feelings and actions. Once this has been established the group are asked to consider the impact on others, and to place themselves in their victim’s shoes. The group are also asked to compare their experiences as a child within their family, with their partners and children’s experiences. The purpose of these activities is to support the participant to fully understand the initial impact of their behaviour as well as the longer term consequences of their abusive behaviour.

EQUIPS Domestic Abuse Program

Hobart: 6165 6700

Glenorchy: 6165 6754

Launceston: 6777 2895

North West: 6477 7169

The EQUIPS Domestic Abuse Program (EQUIPS DA) is a program for men who have been convicted of family violence and have been assessed as being at a medium risk of re-offending. Participation in the program can be either mandatory or voluntary, but most participants are directed to attend by a Magistrate or Probation Officer.

The EQUIPS Domestic Abuse program is designed to address the personal and social factors that contribute to abusive and violent behaviour in intimate partner relationships.

About EQUIPS Domestic Abuse

• EQUIPS DA is a group program and runs for 10 weeks
• You will attend 2 group sessions each week. Each session will take approximately 2 hours
• If you miss a program session for a good reason, such as illness, you will need to provide a doctor’s certificate and attend a catch-up session
• Whether you are sentenced or formally directed to attend and participate in the program by your Probation Officer, you may be breached if you do not attend or do not participate appropriately in program activities and exercises
• If you are breached your case will be returned to Court where the Magistrate may reconsider your sentence

What strategies will I learn?

• You will learn how to manage conflict within your relationships
• You will learn about effective communication and listening skills
• You will learn ways to identify if a situation is likely to lead to abusive behaviours, so you can avoid or walk away from situations before they become a problem
• You will learn about the different types of abusive behaviours
• You will learn about how to set and achieve goals
• You will have the opportunity to work through any issues that come up for you during the program, and be able to develop plans for addressing any problem areas

EQUIPS DA is run by Community Corrections. For more information visit the Community Corrections Programs website (external link).

Services for Women

Engender Equality

Women who have been issued with a Police Family Violence Order or Family Violence Order can contact Engender Equality to talk about their relationship. Engender is a non-government service funded by the Tasmanian Government.

For more information visit the Engender Equality website (external link).