PUBLISHED ONNovember 12, 2024 8:25 AMByKhoo Yi-HangThe Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals (CDRT) will be able to mandate mental health treatment for those who cause unreasonable interferences in the community if a bill to amend the Community Disputes Resolution Act (CDRA) goes through.
The bill was proposed in Parliament by Minister for Community, Culture and Youth Edwin Tong on Tuesday (Nov 12).
The CDRT currently hears disputes under CDRA between neighbours involving acts of unreasonable interference with the enjoyment or use of places of residence.
Under the bill, the tribunal will be able to issue Mandatory Treatment Orders (MTO) should there be a belief that the acts of disturbance stem from an underlying psychiatric condition.
"In those cases, the issue therefore is not just a disamenity one," Minister Tong said. "Hence, the MTO is intended to address the root cause of certain acts that a resident may engage in."
Tong added that their priority remains in persuading the resident to go for treatment voluntarily, and that the CDRT-issued MTO is a measure of last resort.
There are also criteria that must be met for the MTO to be issued.
For example, the claimant must establish that unreasonable interference has been caused by the respondent.
The CDRT must also have grounds to believe that the respondent is likely suffering from a psychiatric condition that may be contributing to the acts of disturbance.
An on-site psychiatrist in the State Courts will also facilitate this assessment, followed by a formal assessment from an appointed psychiatrist after both conditions are met before the MTO can be issued to the respondent, said the minister.
Before an MTO is issued, the Community Relations Unit (CRU) formed under the bill would also take steps able to address neighbour disputes involving individuals who may have mental health conditions.
Senior Minister of State for National Development Sim Ann shared in Parliament that officers under the CRU will work with agencies such as the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC), the Institute of Mental Health and the police to facilitate assessment, confirmation, and treatment of the underlying mental health condition.
Sim also addressed issue of hoarding where in severe cases, homes may even be infested with pests from rotting food.
"The root causes of a hoarder’s behaviour are complex," she said. "They could be due to trauma, grief, or underlying mental health conditions."
The Hoarding Management Core Group, led by the Municipal Services Office, was set up in 2014 to coordinate efforts across agencies and resolve protracted and severe hoarding cases.
Despite the group's best efforts, hoarders may still choose to be uncooperative; decluttered homes may become cluttered again as habits do not change quickly, she added.
To address this, the bill empowers the Director-General to apply for a CDRT to declutter a residential unit as a last resort.
This can only be done after the CDRT has found the hoarder to be causing unreasonable interference to the hoarder’s neighbour, and the hoarder has failed to comply with the CDRT’s order to declutter.
Officers under the CRU would then be able to enter the unit in question, remove and dispose any hoarded materials causing unreasonable interference, alongside any other actions allowed by the Court.
Minister Tong also shared in Parliament that over the last three years, public agencies have received more than 90,000 pieces of feedback on neighbour noise alone - which works out to about 2,500 complaints per month since 2021.
"Singapore is a densely populated city-state," Tong explained. "When individuals live close to one another, some degree of friction will inevitably arise."
He added: "Noise complaints, by far, form the vast majority of all neighbour disputes feedback received by agencies.
"Most complaints, not surprisingly, come from HDB estates, since 80 per cent of our population reside in the HDB estates."
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