Men's Referral Service

Men’s Referral Service Contact – 1300 766 491  

The Men’s Referral Service (MRS), run by No To Violence (NTV), is a specialist men’s family violence telephone counselling, information and referral service. It operates nationally, seven days a week, and is the central point of contact for men taking responsibility for their violent behaviour.  

The MRS provides support and referrals for men seeking support to change their own behaviour and develop nonviolent strategies and healthy respectful relationships. It also provides support and referrals for partners on behalf of their male partners, friends or family members, and workers in a range of agencies seeking assistance for their clients. 

The MRS also runs various programs including the Brief Intervention Service (BIS) and the Men’s Accommodation and Counselling Service (MACS) to support men to end their use of violence. 

Who can contact the Men’s Referral Service? 

• Men who have used or continue to use violence and who are seeking support to change their abusive behaviours.
• Family members who are impacted by a man’s use of abusive behaviours. 
• Friends, family or colleagues of men who may be using family violence and wanting to know how to best support them to change.
• Professionals working with men who are using violence or family members impacted by violence and seeking secondary consultation. 

Brief Intervention Service (BIS) 

The BIS program is a national, flexible, short term multi-session service for men who use family violence. It is designed to intervene at a point in time to address family violence risk, provide referral options to assist men to get further support, and to be resourced as they begin the behaviour change journey.  

The BIS program focuses on providing short term multi-sessional telephone support for men who use family violence, men who are on a waiting list for family violence support (such as Men’s Behaviour Change Program) and men who are unable to access family violence support because of: 

• Services are not readily available, and unable to take active referrals due to waitlists. 
• Men who live in remote or regional areas. 
• Men who have barriers to attend group programs.
• Men who are from non-English speaking background. 

(It is, however, important to note that the Brief Intervention Service is not and does not replace a men’s behaviour change program or group.) 

Men’s Accommodation and Counselling Service (MACS) 

The (MACS) program works with men who have been excluded from the family home due to their use of family violence. It is operated in Victoria in with partners Salvation Army Crisis Centre.  

This service is designed to keep individuals and families safe. It is for men who have used family violence and: 

• Have been excluded (via a Family Violence Intervention Order or Family Violence Safety Notice) from the home due to family violence. 
• In need of crisis accommodation. 
• Require specialist support during the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying restrictions. 
• Interested in engaging in counselling support to address their behaviour.  

With the Men’s Accommodation and Counselling Service, clients can expect to: 

• Speak to a qualified counsellor who will provide support in securing accommodation. 
• Be treated with respect and without judgement. 
• Have qualified counsellors will speak about ways of addressing violent and abusive behaviour. 
• Have qualified counsellors that will help with getting access to counselling services such as mental health, drug and alcohol, the Caring Dads program and Men’s Behaviour Change Programs.  

Men’s Referral Service – Financial Year  

During the last financial year, MRS counsellors continued to build specialist clinical services to provide support to men concerned about their abusive behaviour and use of violence, and their friends and family members who also seek our assistance often at times of critical need.  

NTV was successful in securing four years of funding from the Commonwealth Government to continue our single and multi-sessional counselling service through the Men’s Referral Service.  

The Victorian Government (through Family Safety Victoria) provided NTV with an additional three years’ funding for the Men’s Accommodation and Counselling Service (MACS), to provide housing and counselling services for men who have been excluded from their residence due to family violence (via a Family Violence Intervention Order or Family Violence Safety Notice) and who are interested in engaging in counselling to address their behaviour.  

Removing men from their family home provides an opportunity for women and children to remain in the family home when and where it is safe to do so, and if they choose to stay. This means women and children remain safe and stable and the disruption to their lives is minimised. The early evaluation of the service reports favourably on its outcomes.  

In the past year the Men’s Referral Service team has increased to 49 people, comprising a multi-disciplinary team of social service providers committed to gender equity, leadership, change and accountability across all service areas.  

In 2021-2022 the Men’s Referral Services responded to 7,644 inbound calls from people seeking support related to men’s family violence. There was a significant increase of 61% people seeking men’s family violence support via the Service’s webchat function. This increase indicates that people are seeking alternative ways to access informed, evidence based, professional support.  

The Men’s Referral Service’s Brief Intervention Service provided multi sessional support to 508 men. On average the men attended 6 sessions each.