Foster Care Victoria

This article co-written by Joe Tucci of the Australian Childhood Foundation offers a very insightful view of the current Child Protection whirlwind. Giving perspective to recent tragedies around the nation this article looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the federal response before an examination of the limiting use of the term Child Abuse.

Its well worth a read and contemplation.

This article made front page of The Age today, and will hopefully attract some much-needed attention to the plight of the Out of Home Care sector. However, the headline 100 children a night in temporary digs really is an emergency is fairly misleading, seeming to suggest that foster care is somehow not a temporary arrangement. If the journalist was reporting accurately, the figure would be many, many times higher…

There are new-child-restraint-lawsfor restraints in cars which are important for us all to be aware of.

This article on News.com.au details changes in the adoption laws of New South Wales which will make it easier for foster carers to adopt the children they are caring for.

One of the main changes is that foster carers will continue to receive fortnightly reimbursements while the child is in their care, even after they have legally adopted the child. Foster carers in Victoria currently continue to receive reimbursement if a child in their care undergoes a conversion to a Permanent Care placement, but it will be interesting to see if the change in laws in NSW trigger a similar change to adoption laws here. Perhaps we will see our low rates of local adoption on the increase in years to come?

This article in yesterday’s edition of The Age, “Children In Care Miss Out”, makes an important point. However, it also seemed to criticize foster carers by suggesting that they are not doing enough to assist children develop a healthy social life by allowing them to see their friends. I would like to point out that in many situations one of the primary reasons that children in care do not frequently “see friends outside the classroom” is that they simply do not have many friends. Children and young people in care often have difficulty creating and maintaining relationships, due to past trauma or abuse, and can have behaviours which may seem strange to other children and which may be challenging for them to accept. The best way we can assist children and young people in developing a healthy social network is to provide them with stability, counselling and understanding. So we should not pin this statistic on the carers. Instead, let’s examine the real reasons behind this sad situation and work together to support these children and young people any way we can.

Saturday’s Herald Sun has reported a 5-year, 15 million dollar recruitment drive for foster and kinship carers in Queensland. It all seems like very positive stuff, particularly since it seems to involve a reasonably high level of participation from the local MPs of the area. I’d be very interested to hear comments from anyone who lives in Brisbane or the surrounding area to see if it’s all as good as it seems. You can read the full article here .

The Australian has reported that the recent media reports about the sad case in Adelaide have sparked more people to make inquiries.

Rumblings at a policy/government level are also apparent from Jay Weatherill announcing increases in financial support for foster carers, changes to legislation in the ACT, and talks in NSW, and even talks at the federal level of a national policy for Child Protection.

Since there have been so many cases of neglect and abuse reported in the news recently, it seems an opportune time to reflect on the types of issues we’re hearing about.

Larkin’s article here is probably not a bad place to start, not only giving a snap-shot of the recent cases in South Australia, Canberra, Queensland and a myriad of other locations around the nation, but also the quotes he’s chosen demonstrate what I think the public is becoming more and more aware of- that the cases reported are not isolated cases, they’re part of much larger and ongoing issue we’re hearing referred to as the “tip of the iceberg”. Of course there has been no rise in the number of children needing foster care in the last month, just a rise in the number of cases reported, and in general, the number of children needing care is severely underestimated by the general public.

His article also challenges the perception of birth parents, thinking about them not horrible people intent on hurting their children, but taking into account that there is usually something seriously impeding their ability to make different choices.

He also points out that although government changes are needed, and a refocus on early intervention is vital, a significant aspect is that everybody expects that someone else is fixing the problem.

And while I think that Larkin’s point about early intervention are certainly valid, we  need to think about it even more holistically than that; to realise that volunteering is often part of that solution too, through community respite to support a struggling family, through mentorship programs and through emergency care.

One agency in NSW’s perfectly sums it up in their tagline “Foster care is everybody’s business”; the recent spate of articles hopefully highlights the truth of that statement.

Eastern Volunteers Resource Centre is holding a workshop for volunteers which looks at opportunities for volunteers to gain knowledge and skills relating to promoting their own health and managing stress. Having an awareness of the importance of our own needs, health and wellbeing is obviously key to being able to contribute towards the needs of others. And, best of all, the workshop appears to be free!

How to Take Care of Yourself
Facilitated by Robyn Rourke
Tuesday 8 July 2008
Ringwood (see website for details)
Time: Registration 9:30am, sessions conclude by 12:30
Booking (essential) 98707822 or volunteer.management@evrc.org.au

It was good to see a rather sad article in The Age today detailing some basics about the brain development of children who suffer child abuse and the long-term costs this abuse will cause.  The article also includes a couple of interesting suggestions for improvement, and asserts that our ‘wrapped in cotton wool’ approach to children these days is not necessarily healthy.  It is most definitely worth a read - you can do so, here .