New network for mental health support to boost crisis response

Alliance links Home Team psychologists, professionals from mental health bodies

- Samuel Devaraj

A new initiative bringing together Home Team psychologists and correctional rehabilitation specialists, as well as professionals from mental health associations, has been rolled out to enhance Singapore's crisis management and psychological support in emergencies.

The Human Emergency Assistance and Response Teams (Heart) Professionals Network was launched on July 16 by Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Sim Ann at the Asian Conference on Criminal and Operations Psychology (Accop).

"This network aims to enhance knowledge sharing, improve intervention approaches and strengthen inter-agency partnerships in the areas of mental health and crisis management," said Ms Sim.

"This alliance will enable Singapore to be better prepared for future emergencies — not just with infrastructure but with coordinated emotional and psychological response capability."

Ms Sim said the participating mental health associations are the Singapore Psychiatric Association, Singapore Association for Counselling, Singapore Psychological Society and Singapore Association of Social Workers.

The initiative is an expansion of the Heart Network launched in 2019 to help Singapore respond to terrorist attacks.