We would like to thank everyone who has sent back questionnaires and joined or updated the mailing list. You are helping to establish a vital network of people working in or interested in child abuse prevention.
The last six months have been busy and exciting for the Clearing House. Resource materials in a variety of formats - books, videos, overseas and Australian journals, legislation, training manuals, teaching aids - have been acquired, included in the collection, and are being well used. Information about Australian items has been added to the Institute's Australian Family and Society Abstracts (FAMILY) database.
Questionnaires on Child Abuse Prevention Programs and Research-in Progress have been widely distributed, and responses added to inhouse databases. These will provide more information with which to help child abuse prevention personnel with their work. Responses are still arriving but in fewer numbers than hoped for. Workers and researchers are urged to complete and return questionnaires, or to send them back incomplete if not all items are relevant. Alternatively, we would welcome a brief written or verbal (phone (03) 9214 7871/7821) description of involvement in the field, professional interests or a publication emanating from work.
CD-ROM on child abuse prevention information
Response to the questionnaire seeking comment and suggestions regarding a proposed CD-ROM to disseminate information collected by the Clearing House has been enthusiastic. Thank you to all those who responded.
Replies were received from a wide range of individuals and organisations including family support agencies, other non-government agencies, government departments, hospitals and medical centres, and researchers.
The most requested information categories were: a database of child protection programs; a database of references and abstracts to the literature; child abuse statistics; full text of educational and prevention material; information on state and territory child protection agencies and non government organisations; and training materials. Other suggestions received included: legislation relevant to child welfare and protection; agencies offering training in child protection work; forthcoming conferences and seminars.
Work will now proceed on preparing a project proposal, seeking initial funding, identifying appropriate software for the CD-ROM, and selecting information sources. We would be pleased to hear from organisations interested in publishing material on the CD-ROM.
Who is on the Clearing House network?
Analysis of the mailing list reveals that members are mainly workers in the field - service providers, psychologists, social workers, teachers, doctors, or members of the police force. Government officers constitute the second largest group, while the third largest comprises academics, researchers and students.
Information queries are coming from the same types of clients, in roughly the same proportion as representation on the network.
Please use your Clearing House
You are invited to make full use of National Clearing House resources and services. Materials may be borrowed via interlibrary loan or through the Institute's Family Information Centre membership. The Family Information Centre is staffed during business hours (9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.) to answer calls and attend to visitors. Staff will provide you with details of resources held, printouts from databases, or answers to questions. The Clearing House Research Advisor is available to help with queries. Visitors can access any of the Clearing House databases, the online catalogue or the Institute's Australian Family and Society Abstracts (FAMILY) database.
In this Newsletter there is a sample of the kind of response to a query, which can be provided from the database, in this case on 'Abuse of Disabled Children'.
Have you any information about new resources, programs, events, conferences, or research that you think colleagues would find useful? Let us know. We'll follow it up and make it available to Clearing House members.
The National Prevention Strategy for Child Abuse and Neglect, developed by the National Child Protection Council, aims to create an environment which supports families and communities and helps them to meet their responsibilities to care for and protect children.
The Newsletter will run a regular feature in which representatives from each state will report on initiatives of relevance to the National Prevention Strategy. In order to facilitate further exchange of information, contact details are provided for each contributor.
The section begins in this issue with items from Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria.
Queensland
The Queensland Government is committed to encouraging families and communities to promote positive attitudes towards children and parenting.
In the 1994-95 financial year, one of the significant programs of the Department of Family and Community Services, was the Valuing Children Campaign initiative.
Under this Campaign, grants were made available to community organisations and local government authorities to assist in fostering the development of local networks that could play a continuing role in identifying and coordinating the implementation of strategies aimed at reducing child abuse and neglect.
The Campaign provided a valuable opportunity to participate in Queensland's implementation of the National Strategy for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.
In the 1995-96 state budget, $24m over three years was allocated for new child protection legislation, prevention services, and therapeutic services for children and families affected by abuse and neglect, with particular emphasis on developing strategies that respond to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.
The objective of this new child protection strategy is to ensure the protection of Queensland's children from abuse and neglect through the integrated implementation of reformed child protection laws and enhanced service delivery.
As part of this strategy, funds of $800,000 have been made available to the community sector for the provision of services which support families in their primary role of caring for children.
Of these funds, $300,000 will be allocated towards the establishment of a statewide parent helpline to provide parenting advice and referral to parents. The remaining $500,000 will be made available for the establishment of five parent centres. These centres will provide direct support and practical assistance as well as parent education.
In addition, as part of an election commitment, an undertaking of just under $14.5m for a Positive Parenting Package was made. The implementation of this program will have clear implications for child abuse prevention in Queensland. The program will operate over 30 centres and be accompanied by a series of television parent education programs.
Contact: Geraldine Rallos, Acting Policy Coordinator, Community and
Youth Awareness Unit, Division of Community Services Development, Department
of Family and Community Services. Phone (07) 3224 7589. Fax (07) 3224 7588.
South Australia
The Minister for Family and Community Services, Mr David Wotton, has established
a joint working party of government and non-government representatives,
chaired by Mr Paul Madden from MISSION SA, to examine current child abuse
and neglect prevention arrangements in South Australia.
A large scale survey of agencies and organisations is being undertaken by the working party to ascertain what prevention interventions are currently in place and to identify gaps in service provision. This will be followed by a comprehensive community consultation process that will draw on the experiences of consumers and support groups; it will include consultation with disability groups, people from non-English-speaking backgrounds, Aboriginal groups, and adolescents and survivors of abuse, in both the city and country areas.
A prevention strategy will then be developed to drive South Australia's service direction into the future and ensure effective integration with the National Prevention Strategy.
Contact: Helen Shepherd, Field Services Support. Phone (08) 226 6725.
Fax (08) 226 6833.
Tasmania
Tasmania has produced a Tasmanian Statewide Networks Community Information Kit. In conjunction with Statewide Information Sessions, this kit is being used to help introduce interested community groups and individuals to the National Prevention Strategy for Child Abuse and Neglect and the Statewide Community Networks Project. It is also forming a good base from which community groups can consider and develop local prevention initiatives.
The kit consists of a number of Fact Sheets: What is the National Prevention Strategy for Child Abuse and Neglect? What is child abuse and neglect? Causes of child abuse and neglect; Tasmanian statistics; Prevention - What is it? Why is it important? Examples of prevention programs; New initiatives program; and What to do if asked for help.
Contact: Anne Foot, Senior Program Officer, Family Services, GPO Box
125B, Hobart, Tasmania 7001. Phone (002) 33 4909.
Victoria
Victoria has established a Victorian Child Abuse Prevention Reference Group
to supply advice, facilitate coordination and provide a sense of shared
ownership to assist the implementation of the National Strategy at the state
level. Representatives have been drawn from the various government departments,
non-government organisations, and academic and advisory bodies involved
in the child welfare field. The Reference Group is chaired by Penny Armytage,
Victoria's representative on the National Child Protection Council.
Victoria is currently planning the formation of regional Prevention and Education Networks. The aim of these networks is to encourage the development of local prevention initiatives which promote a community responsibility for the care and protection of children, and promote positive parenting. Ways of involving local community groups, service clubs, churches, neighbourhood houses and the like are being explored.
On 14 July this year, the Victorian Department of Health and Community Services launched a range of information guides for parents, including ten Parent Tip sheets and a booklet on positive parenting. This information forms part of the Department's Positive Parenting Strategy, intended as a primary prevention approach to addressing children's behavioural problems. The Strategy outlines the different intensity of response appropriate to deal with different problems, and acknowledges the value of accurate and accessible information as a first and vital step in responding to problems that parents encounter.
Contact: John Cheshire, Coordinator Child Abuse Prevention Strategy, Victorian Department of Health and Community Services. Phone (03) 9616 7038.
The two Australian Institute of Health and Welfare publications provide a national summary of the various state and territory statutory child protection services' case loads during 1993-94, and the number of statutory clients placed on a care and protection order. They represent the fourth instalment in an ongoing attempt to provide national statistics on aspects of child abuse and neglect.
In order to produce the reports, the authors have relied on data submitted by the state and territory child protection services, and as such have had to contend with variations in state approaches to child protection and data collection. For example, the following state idiosyncrasies have had to be compensated for when designing the Child Welfare series reports: differences in how maltreatment is defined; variations in legislation governing the reporting of abuse; differing definitions of what constitutes an 'investigation'; and different methods of entering cases into the child protection data collection systems. Taking Victoria as an example, it was reported that only 57 per cent of cases were 'investigated' in a face-to-face interview, the remainder being dealt with via the telephone or some other method. The authors of the Child Welfare reports chose to include only those cases where a face-to-face interview occurred.
The reports were also hampered by a number of 'gaps' or missing information in the submitted data sets. For example, Angus and Woodward noted in Child Welfare Report No. 13, that 55 per cent of New South Wales cases did not identify the maltreater; in Tasmania, the majority of neglect cases were collected and stored on a separate database to which the authors of the report did not have access.
The limitations in the data may be taken as some support for the view that Australia should move to a national system of child protection, with standard definitions of abuse, child protection protocols and data collection methods.
Despite these limitations, the authors were able to produce helpful and informative national child protection statistics as outlined in the following reviews.
Child Abuse and Neglect Australia 1993-1994
Child Welfare Series No. 13, Graham Angus and Sue Woodward, Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare, AGPS, Canberra, 1995.
This is the fourth report to provide a national perspective on the
frequency and nature of child abuse and neglect cases in Australia. The
report, with its focus on the statistics of child abuse reports and the
rate of substantiation, is a most useful summary of the current state of
child protection investigations in Australia. The authors provide the bare
bones of the number and types of abuse reported in each state, information
on perpetrators, and statistics for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
population. The report's findings are linked to previous reports for the
years 1990-91, 1991-92, and 1992-93. As the authors' state, the report does
not provide information about the severity of the maltreatment, or details
of the extent and type of services involved in providing support to the
child and/or family.
Overall, there were 74,436 reported cases of child abuse and neglect during 1993-94, a rise of 26 per cent over the 1992-93 figures, which, when added to the national statistics since 1990, indicate that there has been an increase in the number of reports of 75 per cent in the past five years. Of the 64,787 cases of child maltreatment for which a case outcome had been finalised during the year, 44 per cent of reports had been substantiated. A further 4 per cent were not substantiated, but were designated as 'child at risk'. The rate of substantiation has increased by 46 per cent over the past five years. Up until 1992-93 and 1993-94 the substantiation rate had been increasing at a slower rate than the rate for the overall number of reports. However in the last two years, the number of substantiations has risen above the increase in the number of notifications.
Of the individual states and territories, by far the greatest increase in the notification rate was reported in Victoria, which, as a result of the introduction of mandatory reporting and greater community awareness of child abuse issues, recorded a 53 per cent increase in the number of notifications received by Health and Community Services Victoria from 1992-93 to 1993-94. Of these notifications, 40 per cent were substantiated.
Of the 28,711 cases substantiated across the nation, 29 per cent were cases of physical abuse, 27 per cent were cases of emotional abuse, 19 per cent were sexual abuse, and 25 per cent were cases of neglect. Since 1992-93 there has been a decrease in the numbers of sexual abuse cases, and an increase in the number of neglect cases. Children of both sexes were represented almost equally in physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect cases. Females were the victims in 74 per cent of sexual abuse cases. Children in the age group 13 and 14 years accounted for the highest proportion of substantiated child abuse and neglect cases.
The highest number of finalised cases were reported by friends and neighbours (16 per cent), parents (14 per cent), school personnel (12 per cent) and police (12 per cent). Reports from the child and other professionals all produced substantiation rates above 50 per cent, ranging from reports from the subject child and social workers (58 per cent) to hospital and health centre staff (54 per cent). Anonymous reporters and friends/neighbours had substantiation rates of 24 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) children accounted for 8 per cent of all substantiated cases, a significant over-representation, given that they account for less than 3 per cent of the overall population. These children were particularly over-represented in neglect cases; four times as many ATSI children were neglected than for the overall population. However only 11 per cent of ATSI cases involved sexual abuse, compared with 19 per cent for the overall population.
With regard to the maltreaters in the substantiated cases, in 39 per cent of cases no maltreater was identified, which as Angus and Woodward stated, seriously affected the data. When a maltreater was identified, it was reported that the majority of maltreaters were the victim's natural parents (72 per cent), while other caregivers (for example, defacto parents, foster parents) accounted for a further 12 per cent.
A useful inclusion in the maltreater data would have been a breakdown of the sex of the perpetrator by the sex of the victim. This would enable among other things, a determination of the number of female sex abusers and neglecting males (especially in two-caregiver families) - two types of maltreaters sometimes overlooked by the child protection system and the community as a whole.
Finally, greater use of the data for the 30,000 unsubstantiated cases should perhaps be considered in future reports, if such information is available from the state and territory child protection services. An analysis of the national population of notifications, and comparisons with the substantiated case data would be of great interest.
Children Under Care and Protection Orders Australia 1993-94
Child Welfare Series No. 12, Graham Angus and Louise Golley, Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare, AGPS, Canberra. 1995.
This is the fourth report on children under care and protection orders.
There are a large variety of orders in use across the Australian states
and territories which can be broadly categorised as guardianship and non-guardianship
orders.
For the purposes of this report, Angus and Golley define a guardianship order involving a child becoming a ward of the state or territory, with his or her legal guardianship being the responsibility of the child protection/welfare department. A non-guardianship order is defined as the Minister, Director or other official being given some responsibility for a child's welfare. This may include supervision of the child, custody or accommodation arrangements. Usually, children are under guardianship or non-guardianship orders because of the inadequate provision of care or protection, such that the child is deemed to be in danger of suffering child abuse and neglect.
Guardianship orders are used in the more severe child maltreatment cases, and when the family has broken down, or a breach of a non-guardianship order has occurred. Non-guardianship orders are usually short-term in nature, and may result in the placement of the subject child away from the family until circumstances permit their return. Children who have committed criminal offences may also be placed under protection orders, however these cases have been excluded from this report in order to separate juvenile justice cases from cases involving the care of children.
In 1993-94, 12,750 children were under care and protection orders, 69 per cent were under guardianship orders, 31 per cent were under non guardianship orders (that is, supervision, accommodation); this represents a rate of 2.8 per 1000 children aged 0 to 17 years. Tasmania had the highest rate at 4.9 orders per 1000 children. Slightly more boys than girls were under care and protection orders in Australia, but this difference was apparent only in the state statistics, not in the territories.
The majority of children who were under a care and protection order were placed in foster care (52 per cent), or were living with parents or relatives (26 per cent). Sixty-two per cent of children under guardianship orders were residing in foster care; the majority of children under non-guardianship orders lived with parents or other relatives (52 per cent).
With regard to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, 10.8 per 1000 children were under guardianship orders, and 4.4 per 1000 on other orders; both rates were approximately five times higher than for all children aged 0-17 years.
There has been little change in rate of care and protection orders over the last five years (a 0.6 per cent increase). However there have been some significant state differences. For example, New South Wales has had a 21 per cent increase, while the rate of care and protection orders in Victoria has decreased by 18 per cent.
This report would be enhanced by the inclusion of a breakdown of the reasons for the orders (that is, the type and specifics of the maltreatment that led to the protection application). Data on the breakdown of the maltreater identity by type of abuse, including an analysis of the sex of the maltreater by sex of the subject child, would also enhance our knowledge of the state of child maltreatment and the child protection system in Australia.
The Backlash: Child Protection Under Fire
John E.B. Myers (ed.), Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, Ca., 1994.
In 1988 David Hechler published The Battle and the Backlash:
The Child Sexual Abuse War which described efforts aimed at forcing
society to acknowledge child sexual abuse as a serious problem. Hechler
also described the backlash against such recognition from those who feel
that there is an epidemic of child sexual abuse accusations rather than
of sexual abuse itself. Myers describes his book, The Backlash: Child
Protection Under Fire as a 'report from the front', an update on the
conflict between those advocating child protection and those who feel that
state intervention has gone too far.
This book comprises contributions from a number of academics, practitioners, administrators and community activists who were invited to attend an international conference in 1992 entitled: Defining and Responding to the Backlash against Child Protection.
In the opening chapter, David Finkelhor analyses the child sexual abuse
backlash under a social movements framework. He characterises the child
sexual abuse backlash as a countermovement. Such movements, according to
Finkelhor, are a reaction to the success of the original movement; they
are reactive and oppositional, they tend to have a single-issue focus (in
this case the perceived over-zealous investigation of alleged sexual abuse),
and they attack the means proposed by the initial movement rather than the
outcomes - that is, the investigative techniques employed versus whether
a case of sexual abuse is substantiated and/or the child is removed.
It is contended that such movements tend to attract followers mainly from
the ranks of the downwardly mobile, displaced, and declasse segments of
society. The child sexual abuse backlash is said to be comprised predominantly
of aggrieved parents or professionals who have been investigated and feel
unfairly treated or stigmatised. It may include lawyers defending clients
accused of child sexual abuse, who have had to construct a defence based
upon a body of literature, standard arguments and rationales, and the testimony
of a number of experts or supporters who are able to support the defence
rationale.
The remainder of the book provides an historical overview of the backlash before presenting a number of different perspectives on the child protection response to the backlash. While the majority of contributors are 'anti-backlash' in their approach, Myers attempts to balance this with the inclusion of a chapter written by the President of the National Association of State VOCAL (Victims of Child Abuse Laws) organisations, one of the main proponents of the backlash.
Some of the chapters, written by United States child protection service managers and senior administrators could be considered too simplistic for readers with a detailed knowledge of the child protection field, given that often their defence of child protection appears to be based on the 'no system is perfect' argument. The chapters consist of summaries of the legislation governing child protection, and frequently-used explanations for criticisms of the system. The work would have benefited from the provision of a detailed critique of the means by which the system could be improved.
The chapter by Lesley Wimberly from VOCAL provides an interesting contrast to the rest of the book. While the VOCAL agenda pervades this chapter, some of the conclusions reached by Wimberly - that workers should be more adequately trained, and that adequate services should be provided to marginally dysfunctional families - appear eminently sensible means to enhance the child protection system.
Of particular interest was the chapter documenting the backlash in Europe in that it examines the ways in which controversial, multiple victim child protection cases, such as Cleveland and the Orkneys, have affected the public perception of child protection services' competency. The chapter provides a detailed analysis of one particular case - the Oude Pekela case in the Netherlands - and examines the role of the practitioners, the involvement of other professionals who criticised the professionals' case management, the role of the media, and the subsequent effect on the public.
Each chapter in the book contains recommendations for responding to the backlash against child protection, and the final chapter highlights the major recommendations that should interest researchers, practitioners, administrators and other professionals involved or concerned with the protection of children from child sexual abuse.
There are up to 2000 children in care in New South Wales. On 21 August, Community Services Minister the Hon. Ron Dyer MLC officially launched a new Community Visitors scheme which will provide help for these children by advocating on their behalf to improve the quality of their care. In particular, the 40 new Community Visitors, some of whom are young people who have been in care themselves, will try to help those with little or no family support.
Kids Help Line opened in Queensland in 1991, and became a national service in May 1993 when it was launched in New South Wales. Its Mission is to help people develop strategies and skills which enable them to more effectively manage their own lives. An integral part of achieving this mission is the provision of free accessible national services which are founded on the principles of empowerment.
Kids Help Line maintains a free confidential telephone counselling service for all 5 to 18 year-olds in Australia. Non-identifying information is recorded for all calls, and includes the type and severity of problem, the age and gender of caller and the state or postcode of origin. This data provides information for policy development at a number of levels within government and community based services.
Counsellors are supported by a constantly updated service provider data base for each state, which allows counsellors to quickly locate appropriate services in the caller's area. Approximately 12 per cent of callers are referred to other services, mainly emergency accommodation and child protection agencies.
Telephone counselling has a unique and expanding place in the helping
professions, and is both an effective and powerful medium. Counsellors encourage
clients to have a belief in themselves and their personal strengths, and
to develop a critical ability to evaluate and implement options. Clients
may use the service as often as they need, for as long as they need. Respect
is accorded for each clients's individuality, feelings and the right to
make personal decisions. At the same time, Kids Help Line encourages productive
relationships with parents, teachers and other carers.
Caller Data
The main problems about which callers contact Kids Help Line are described
in the accompanying graph
Other important facts include:
Caller Survey
Kids Help Line recently completed a two-month survey of 200 six to 16 year-olds who were at home without adult supervision. The survey was conducted in response to the number of children who phoned Kids Help Line between the hours of 3 pm and 6 pm, and during school holidays, who were caring for themselves. The purpose of the survey was to identify the issues of concern for children who 'self-care'.
Survey results showed that:
Parentline
As a result of receiving over 30,000 phone calls to Kids Help Line from parents, Boystown National Community Projects has decided to fund a telephone and counselling service solely for parents. The aim of the service will be to provide confidential professional counselling and support to parents. Parentline will initially be trialled in the Brisbane and Ipswich metropolitan areas for a six-month period from July 1995 to January 1996. An evaluation of the service will be available by the end of December 1995.
Contact: Kids Help Line, PO Box 376, Red Hill, Queensland 4059. Phone
(07) 369 1588. Fax (07) 367 1266
Home-Start is a preventative voluntary home visiting program which offers practical support and friendship to families with children under the age of five years. The first Home-Start scheme was established in Leicester, England, in 1973 and there are now 196 Home-Start programs operating throughout the United Kingdom and other countries including Germany, Canada, The Netherlands, Hungary and Israel.
The program began in Australia in May 1989 under the auspices of The Family Action Centre at the University of Newcastle, and there are now six Home Start schemes throughout New South Wales.
All Home-Start visitors offer their time on a voluntary basis - all are parents and grandparents - and are linked on a one-to-one basis with families, whom they visit regularly. Before they are linked with a family, volunteers attend a ten-week preparation course (one day per week) which aims to increase their knowledge and confidence.
Families needing help are usually referred by helping agencies, social workers, schools, preschools, churches, doctors and neighbourhood centres. Families themselves sometimes ask Home-Start for assistance. Such families might include mothers suffering from loneliness and depression, single parents, parents with a disability, families coping with a child with a disability, or with a multiple birth, young mothers who are not coping well.
Home-Start Australia is concerned for the welfare of children and parents and is committed to establishing its programs throughout Australia. In return for a small annual fee, each Home-Start scheme will receive effective training, information, guidance and personal support from Home-Start Australia. The project aims to create a national network to assist families in the community, stimulate government interest in funding local projects, and mobilise communities to participate in primary prevention through management structure and volunteer involvement. The Home-Start model has the potential for saving community resources and preventing child abuse and neglect.
Contact: Marilyn Barnes, National Coordinator, Home-Start Australia. Phone (049) 21 7076
The Institute for Child Protection Studies in New Zealand is a new training organisation providing multi-disciplinary training on child protection issues for anyone who works with or is concerned about children. It was established by Parentline Inc. in response to a world wide-need for training in child protection at a prevention level.
The Institute's objectives are: to improve the competencies of those who have a role in preventing child abuse, or who are required to respond to children at risk; to increase cooperation among all those dealing with children at risk; to increase awareness of child abuse among all levels of the community; and to foster and encourage research into child abuse issues in New Zealand.
The Institute offers an eight-day intensive Certificate (or weekly, spread out over eight weeks) and a 400-hour (over eight months) part-time Advanced Certificate course in Child Protection Studies. Courses are aimed at professionals and skilled volunteers from a variety of backgrounds. All teaching staff are experienced in the field of child protection or have relevant specialist qualifications in various disciplines including social work, law, medicine and psychology.
The initial Certificate consists of eight modules: What is child abuse?; Causes of child abuse; Effects and symptoms of child abuse; Recognising child abuse; What to do when child abuse is suspected; Reporting child abuse; Following up a report; Practical skills for protecting children.
The Advanced Certificate in Child Protection Studies offers many other units, including: Child development from a child abuse perspective; Working with children with intellectual disabilities; Types of abuse (emotional, sexual and physical); Sexual offenders; Therapies available to children; Assessing risk; Protection programs for children; Running a family meeting; and Counselling needs of families where a child is at risk of, or has been abused.
Other services include conferences, seminars and research into child protection issues relevant to New Zealand. The Institute provides its services to any person who might be required to have a role in preventing child abuse, or be required to respond to children at risk of abuse.
Contact: Anthea Simcock, Project Manager, The Institute for Child Protection Studies, 48 Palmerston Street, PO Box 11077, Hamilton, New Zealand. Phone 0-7-838 9283.
The Barnardos program runs on the philosophy that there are some families who need to be supported in childrearing and that the failure to provide adequate support may lead to a cycle of deprivation which in turn may lead to chronic family problems or maltreatment.
The main objective of the TFC program is to stop the neglect and abuse of children, and where possible, to keep children out of long-term care. The Barnardos program is designed to deal with both voluntary and statutory clients. It is reported that 95 per cent of all children who have participated in the program have successfully returned home to their parents.
The program operates as more than a short-term foster care agency. It assists the identification of children at greatest risk of abuse and/or neglect. It provides family support, by encouraging families to use appropriate support services, and where necessary, it offers access to 24 hour crisis or short-term respite care. As part of the program, TFC staff work to facilitate families' access to services, and to empower and train parents to fulfil their parental roles whilst reducing parental stress. When children are in need of ongoing care, TFC staff monitor changes in family functioning and any risks to the child.
The Temporary Family Care program also enables the provision of first hand assessments of families for child protection services or the Childrens Court to ensure that children are not returned to a dangerous situation. For those children who are unable to return home, the program allows for the development of a long-term care caseplan without, as the authors state, 'unnecessary "drift in care" or emotional trauma' (p.2.).
The empowerment of parents and children is seen as essential elements of the total TFC program. Some basic tenets of the program are to ensure minimal disruption to children during crisis situations, and where possible, to work to keep parents (and other sources of social support such as extended family, friends, school) involved with the children whilst the children are on placement. To this end, parents are encouraged to be involved in day-to-day decisions which affect their children and TFC staff are trained to reinforce the important role the natural parents play in their children's lives. With voluntary clients and/or those not remanded into care, where there is a need for ongoing support and the parents have long-term difficulties with child rearing, TFC staff also attempt to provide regular respite placements for the children.
The TFC kit contains a number of sections or modules describing all facets of program development and ongoing program management. The initial sections explain the underlying principles and describe the various constituent elements of the program. Case studies are incorporated to illustrate aspects of the program, and each section comes with a checklist as an aid to program implementation.
More specifically, the kit outlines the procedures involved in accepting referrals into the program and the construction of written contracts between TFC workers and parents. Separate sections provide information on establishing a service, such as selecting a location, financial considerations, and the need for professional/community networking.
There are also sections on recruiting `carers', that is, those families who will foster a child, (including sections on the carers role, selection and training, ongoing supervision and support); staff selection and recruitment (including full job descriptions, prerequisites, criminal checks); program management (staff support, caseload management, worker supervision,team building); management support of the carers; and finally, a section on quality assurance, which provides details on how to conduct professional audits of the program.
The package also comes with a Carer Applicant Interview Guide and Client Information Sheet, and ten discussion papers written by various Barnardos staff, dealing with child maltreatment and aspects of case management under the TFC program.
Kits are supplied at a cost of $45 ($55 in binder) and an additional $5.45 for postage and handling. They are available from Barnardos Australia, Locked Bag 1 Million, Sydney South, NSW 2000. Phone (02) 2679473.
The US National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center in the Medical University of South Carolina is currently examining the state of measurement in the child abuse and neglect field. They are conducting interviews with researchers on issues relating to methodology, opinions on critical measurement problems in the field and suggested improvements.
Contact: Benjamin E. Saunders, Ph.D., National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, 171 Ashley Avenue, Charleston, SC 29425-0742. Email: saunders@musc.edu
The National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect was established to facilitate the secondary analysis of high quality data sets relevant to the study of child abuse and neglect. Its primary activities are therefore in the acquisition, preservation and dissemination of data sets. The Archive is funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
The Archive produces various publications, including a free biannual newsletter,The Archive Updata, which contains news on the Archive's new and current projects and data sets from studies on child abuse and neglect.
Data sets can be purchased for US$50 for the first data set and US$25 for each additional data set. Complete documentation and technical support is included in the price. Among the many data sets available are those from the Substantiation of Child Abuse and Neglect Reports, Incidence and Severity of Child Abuse and Neglect Study, National Family Violence Survey, and Effects of Parental Psychopathology and Maltreatment on Child Behaviour. A complete list of the data is available from the Archive at the address below.
The Archive also offers training in secondary data analysis at its Summer Research Institute and an email discussion list on the Internet for information exchange on issues relating to child abuse and neglect research. Individuals connected to the Internet can subscribe to this list by sending an electronic mail message containing the text, subscribe Child-Maltreatment-Research-L your name to: listserv@cornell.edu (Your name should consist of your first and last name.)
Contact: National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, Family Life Development Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401. Phone (607) 255 7794: Fax (607) 255 8562: Email - Datacan@cornell.edu
A new evening seminar series, Positive Parenting, is being presented by the Centre for Community Child Health and Ambulatory Paediatrics at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. The seminars aim to build the confidence of parents in caring for children aged 0-12 years, and give them information about parenting groups in their local community. The seminars are reasonably priced, free child care (bookings essential) is available, and refreshments will be served.
Contact: Judith Gray, Health Educator, Education and Quality Assurance Unit. Phone (03) 9345 6530. Judith would also welcome suggestions for future seminars.
16-19 October 1995
5th Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
Melbourne, Victoria
Entitled 'Taking Responsibility: Sharing Solutions', this conference is
hosted by the Victorian Department of Health and Community Services. Main
themes are: to promote the development of an integrated multi-disciplinary
approach to the protection of children from child abuse and neglect; to
advocate for the rights of children and young people in Australasia; to
strengthen the commitment to the prevention of child abuse and neglect;
and to provide professionals with current research and information on child
abuse and neglect programs and services.
Contact: 5th Australian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect, ICMS Pty Ltd, 84 Queensbridge Street, South Melbourne, Victoria 3205. Phone (03) 9682 0244 or (03) 9616 7103.
20-21 October 1995
Child Neglect
Sydney, NSW
Dr Kari Killen will present a seminar for the NSW Child Protection Council on the issue of child neglect, including prevention and assessment. Dr Killen is a clinical researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Child Welfare Research and the current President of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) In this latter role, Dr Killen participates in guiding international developments to advance the knowledge on the prevention, recognition and treatment of child abuse and neglect.
Contact: The NSW Child Protection Council, Level 4, Remington Centre, 169-183 Liverpool Street, Sydney NSW 2000. Phone (02) 286 7276. Fax: (02) 286 7267.
25-26 October 1995
Drug Using Parents and Child Protection
Sydney NSW
Workers in child protection fields may be confronted with issues where parents
have substance using problems. This course gives workers an opportunity
to apply an interagency child protection risk assessment model to their
work with families, developing their skills in assessment, conflict management,
goal directed decision making and case management. A forum is provided to
discuss the dilemmas and challenges in child protection work.
Contact: The NSW Child Protection Council, Level 4, Remington Centre, 169 183 Liverpool Street, Sydney NSW 2000. Phone (02) 286 7276. Fax: (02) 286 7267.
28-29 October 1995
Protective Behaviours National Conference
Canberra, ACT
The 1995 Protective Behaviours National Conference, to be held at the Lakeside Hotel Canberra, is entitled 'Looking Forward: Principles, Innovations and Applications'. ACT Protective Behaviours are inviting people interested in presenting workshop sessions to submit an abstract of approximately 250 words to the Protective Behaviours Conference Committee, Melrose Counselling Centre, Marr Street, Pearce, ACT 2607.
Contact: Sue Driscoll or Diana Roe (06) 205 7624.
30 November - 1 December 1995
Children and Domestic Violence
Magill, South Australia
The first National Conference on Children and Domestic Violence, organised
by the Children and Domestic Violence Action Group, will
bring together professionals working with children who are interested in
the impact of domestic violence. The conference will provide an opportunity
to share new ideas, programs and resources, develop national networks, and
increase the profile and awareness of the effects of domestic violence on
children. Themes include: therapies, interventions and programs; education
and prevention research; legal and legislative issues; policy making and
future directions.
Contact: Conference on Children and Domestic Violence, PO box 326, Elizabeth SA 5112. Phone (05) 255 3622: Fax (05) 287 0323.
18-21 February 1996
Injury Prevention and Control
Melbourne, Victoria
The Third International Conference on Injury Prevention will be
held in the Control World Congress Centre in Melbourne.
Contact: National Injury Surveillance Unit, Mark Oliphant Building,
Laffer Drive, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042. Phone (08) 374 0970: Fax
(08) 201 7602.
25-28 March 1996
IFCW Asia Pacific Regional Conference
Darwin, NT
Equity in Opportunity is the theme of the 1996 Regional Conference for the International Forum for Child Welfare, being organised by Somerville Community Services Inc. IFLA is an international non-government organisation with more than 300 child welfare organisations in membership including network organisations from every continent along with Foundations and funding organisations. Through exchange of experiences and exposure to innovative thinking about the welfare of children, participants will establish regional networks of support. Proposed workshop topics include: the impact of tourism on children; child disability - war, disease, accident; empowerment of ethnic minorities; nutritional, environmental and infrastructural elements of health; developmental projects; cultural diversity; and child exploitation.
Contact: Convention Catalysts Int., GPO Box 2541, Darwin NT 0801. Fax (89) 411 639.
12-4 April 1996
Sexual Exploitation
Rozelle, NSW
Sexual exploitation of children by health professionals, psychotherapists, and clergy will be explored at this conference. It will focus on education and prevention, legislation, professional accountability, redress, working with those who have been exploited, particular issues relevant to specific groups, assessment of offenders, and the institutional structures enabling such abuse to take place.
Contact: Committee Against Health Professional and Clergy Abuse, PO Box 674, Rozelle NSW 2039. Phone or fax: (02) 557 8290.
18-21 August 1996
Creating Stability in an Unstable World
Dublin, Ireland
Abstracts are being called for the Eleventh International Congress of the
International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN).
The Congress theme is 'Children and Families: Creating Stability in an Unstable
World'. Sub-themes include: Protected children, protective families - a
global task; Building protective systems - from small beginnings; Children's
rights; International protection of children; Child labour;Working with
abusers to protect children; Partnership with parents; Treatment perspectives;
and Children of war.
Contact: The Secretariat, ISPCAN Eleventh International Congress, Clifton
House, Fitzwilliam Street Lower, Dublin 2, Ireland. Phone 353-1-6613788:
Fax 353-1-6612073.
Conference Calendar
The National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information in the United States publishes a comprehensive calender of child abuse (and related) conferences. Contact: National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information, PO Box 1182, Washington, DC 20013-1182.
Conference Calandar on the Internet
For those with Internet access, the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) publishes a child abuse conference calender on its Gopher/FTP Server.
The path to the calender is: 9. Other Resources on Child Abuse and Neglect/4. Conference Calender.
To access the NDACAN server using Gopher, point your Gopher client to
gopher.ndacan.cornell.edu (port 70). If you have trouble connecting, try
using the Internet address: 132.236.157.101
To access the NDACAN server using FTP, FTP to gopher.ndacan.cornell.edu and login as anonymous (or FTP). Use your Email address as your password.
To access the NDACAN server using a World Wide Web client (such as NCSA Mosaic or Netscape), use the URL, gopher://gopher.ndacan.cornell.edu.
© Australian Institute of Family Studies - Commonwealth of Australia
1995.
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