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Family Matters reports focus on what the Australian government is doing to turn the tide on over-representation and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. These reports also highlights progress towards achieving the goal that these children and young people grow up safe and cared for in family, community and culture. Eliminating the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care within a generation, by 2040.
Bethan Carter, a research associate at Cardiff University, discusses the ReThink Project; a project run in collaboration with Adoption UK and Coram Voice to investigate what processes are linked to mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced young people and how they manage at two key transitions in life.
Find out more about the conference series 'On the Journey: Navigating Mental Health' here: https://www.exchangewales.org/on-the-journey-navigating-mental-health/
Abstract
Background
The mental health and well-being of care-experienced children and young people remains a concern. Despite a range of interventions, the existing evidence base is limited in scope, with a reliance on standalone outcome evaluations which limits understanding of how contextual factors influence implementation and acceptability. The care-experienced children and young people’s interventions to improve mental health and well-being outcomes systematic review (CHIMES) aimed to synthesise evidence of intervention theory, outcome, process and economic effectiveness. This…
Abstract:
Young people transitioning from out-of-home care (OOHC), often called care leavers, are known to experience mental health challenges. This article presents a scoping review of research studies completed on the mental health care needs and outcomes of care leavers in Australia from 2015 to 2021. Incorporating 17 studies consisting of six peer-reviewed papers and 11 grey literature reports, the review identified several common concerns pertaining to high levels of poor mental health and psychosocial complexity.
These concerns were attributed to a number of factors…
Next Steps for Our Kids (Next Steps) sets out an ambitious reform agenda building on the positive outcomes seen through the implementation of the previous A Step Up for Our Kids Strategy (A Step Up) and addresses the continuing challenges seen in the child and youth protection system in Australia. Next Steps is an evolution of A Step Up and will see various original elements matured, extended and expanded. It sits alongside other local and national strategies and reviews that are aimed at building a stronger, fairer and more…
Objective
There are limited studies which investigate the perceived needs and wellbeing of parents caring for their children with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. This qualitative study uniquely explored the experiences and cultural factors of Vietnamese parents caring for children with a disability in multicultural Australia.
Methods
The study recruited Vietnamese parents who were attending a culturally and linguistically oriented support group in Sydney. The Carers’ and Users’ Expectations of Services (Carer version) was used to examine the…
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Community Health Centres are a crucial part of the Victorian primary health care system, providing a holistic health and welfare model of services to meet local needs. Banyule Community Health has over 40 years’ experience working with vulnerable groups and families. A pilot project in 2016 aiming to improve health care access for children in out-of-home care (OOHC) identified significant systems issues. The process was complex and systems were not supporting the needs of the children or enabling the best use of health workers’ time or skills.
POLICY CONTEXT AND…
ABSTRACT
Objective
The Home Parenting Education and Support (HoPES) programme is a new intensive 8-week home-visiting intervention supporting the preservation and reunification of families with young children (aged 0–4 years) receiving child protection services following child abuse and/or neglect in Australia. The aims of the study were to (a) describe families who had participated in HoPES, (b) describe the key education content and support activities of the programme, and (c) identify the enablers and challenges in implementing HoPES.
Background
Intensive home-based family…
Abstract
Aim
To explore the experiences of Victorian foster and kinship carers in accessing health services for children in their care and to quantify the frequency of potential barriers to health care.
Methods
On‐line survey co‐designed with the Foster Care Association of Victoria measuring carer‐reported health service engagement by a child/young person in their care, ease of service access, time to receiving Medicare number and out‐of‐pocket health‐related costs. A total of 239 foster and 51 kinship carers were recruited through email and social media by carer support agencies…
ABSTRACT
Therapeutic residential care (TRC) privileges healing from trauma for vulnerable children and young people. It presents an opportunity for staff to partner with families to overcome trauma-induced conflicts and separations and build positive, resilient relationships. Co-parenting of residents by staff and parents can become possible. Positive impacts of effective family partnering in residential care generally, and within TRC specifically, are affirmed by international evidence. Family partnering in TRC has not, however, been formally researched in Australia. This preliminary…