Wednesday, 3 December 2025

Smart watches offer family violence victims 'sense of protection'

    1. Canterbury
    2. Christchurch

    The violence prevention watches given to some women's refuges have already produced results....
    The violence prevention watches given to some women's refuges have already produced results. Photo: Supplied
    By Amy Williams of RNZ

    A smart watch that doubles as an alarm for women at risk of family violence is helping to reduce police callouts in Christchurch.

    The social service Help at Hand has provided 1200 of the violence prevention watches to organisations, including some women's refuges, and data shows it is making a difference.

    It looks like any other smart watch but this one comes with a discreet SOS button which silently connects to a monitoring team who can listen to what is happening and if needed, call the police.

    SHE Refuge operations manager Amy Roberts said so far they have had one woman in a dangerous situation do just that.

    "She lives quite a chaotic life and she was given one of those watches, we never thought she would activate it but she did and police came and removed her from a dangerous situation."

    Since August, the refuge in Christchurch has had 20 watches for both women at risk of family violence and staff members.

    "It just gives some people that little bit of control back in their life, in their situation there isn't a lot of control, [the watch is] making them feel more like they're less alone and in charge of their own safety."

    Help at Hand finds technology to help reduce domestic violence and is funding the watches.

    General manager Gavin Healy said they are fund-raising to provide the watches to all women's refuges.

    "We want to scale them to all the women's refuges nation-wide to de-escalate domestic violence around the country. The big impact is really on the kids."

    Impact Lab looked at the experiences of 303 survivors wearing a watch in the year to April, finding that in the six months they had the watch, there was a 66 percent drop in police callouts and 89 percent fall in violent incidents.

    Healy said the team monitoring the watch SOS connections can assess whether a situation is more suited to a social worker or police.

    "The woman presses the watch, it then goes through to the call centre, that's a New Zealand call centre where they're trained for emergency responses," he said.

    "They're initially taking notes on what's happening live, they're recording the live incident so it might be that it goes through to the police as an emergency initially but there might be other key social workers or key people that need to be contacted."

    In Auckland, Fale Pasifika Women's Refuge has 20 watches - general manager Mary Kalolo said the devices provided a sense of comfort.

    "It gives them the sense of protection, just knowing there's something that's there for them to use if need be. The perpetrators wouldn't even recognise it as an SOS watch."

    Kalolo said staff who visit victims of family violence after police have attended also wear the watches.

    "Family violence is continually increasing every week, every day, and coming up to the Christmas holiday period it's the most stressful time."

    Kololo said the refuge will be fully staffed over Christmas.

    "It's a crunch time for us in the Christmas period, can only hope and pray that everyone tries to enjoy the festive season."

    SHE Christchurch supported more than 4000 women and children in the past year and Roberts said that number is increasing.

    "It's pretty rampant out there and it's only getting worse as the Christmas period gets closer, we haven't seen any drop in referrals."

    Women's Refuge said the smart watch was just one part of its safety plan for victims of family violence - it also has an alarm system through its Whanau Protect service for those most at risk.

    Where to get help:

    If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

    Sexual Violence

    Family Violence

    RNZ