Promoting the rights of the family

Stronger Families Learning Exchange Bulletin No.4 Spring/Summer 2003 p.36

Key agencies unite to support parents who have learning difficulties

The forum, Strengthening Every Family - Supporting parents who have learning difficulties was hosted by the Office of the Public Advocate and Victorian Parenting Centre, on 9 July 2003. Eighty-five participants from the Department of Human Services and the community services sector working in parent support, intellectual disability, child protection and advocacy attended the forum.

The keynote speaker Professor Gwynnyth Llewellyn from the University of Sydney said there was a need for services to respond to parents with intellectual disability in the context of the broader social and economic factors which effect all parents. 'Disability is not an individual problem. It is about the way we regard people and the support and services society provides - this is what enables them or dis-ables them,' she said.

Dr David Sykes from the Office of the Public Advocate said: 'The current adversarial nature of the legal and service system can place the rights of the child against those of the parent. We should really be promoting the rights of the family'.

The forum discussions highlighted several key issues:

  1. A lack of clarity around what constitutes 'adequate' parenting. This provides an opportunity for assessments of parenting to be significantly influenced by judgements values and perceptions.
  2. Peoples perceptions of disability can inhibit their ability to consider the importance of other socio economic factors such as poverty, poor education, housing, living in remote areas and ethnic background, which can have a greater impact upon a persons capacity to parent.
  3. Limited availability and access to appropriate parenting support programs.
  4. Need to improve professional practice to better support these families.
  5. Need for staff training and support.
  6. Need for greater collaboration between and integration of services across education, health, disability family support and child protection.

Participants agreed that parents with a disability face multiple disadvantages in keeping their families together. To help meet the needs of the family, delegates agreed on the need for a more coordinated and collaborative services response, including the secondment of staff between agencies and the development and evaluation of existing services to identify service gaps.

Warren Cann, Director of the Victorian Parenting Centre, said working with parents with a learning difficulty presented the opportunity for services to promote best practice for all parents. 'If we can get it right for this group, we can get it right for everyone.'

A key outcome of the forum was a commitment by more than 25 per cent of delegates to form a working group to draw together the key themes from the forum into a plan for action including lobbying key stakeholders like the Department of Human Services for change.

Return to Contents page of Bulletin no.4 Spring/Summer 2003