No More Desperate Measures: Improving Care Models for Children and Families

1. No More Desperate Measures… A call for better models of care for children and families experiencing or at risk of relinquishment and children in out of home care. Monday 3rd August 2012 Ashley Creighton, A collaboration between Yooralla & the Victorian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission 03 August 2012

2. ’There are some indications that children with a disability may be over-represented in the population of children in out-of-home care. While 7 per cent of Victorian children have a disability (ABS 2004, in DHS 2006), unpublished data from the Department of Human Services show that 10 per cent of the current care population enter care with some form of disability or developmental delay. Among those children entering care for the first time in 2007–08 the prevalence of disability was even higher, at 15.4 per cent’’. Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, July 2006 No more desperate measures

3. There are a number of circumstances as to why children with a disability are no longer able to permanently reside with their birth families. Broad categorisation of these are proposed as: • Family ‘relinquishes’ the day to day care; child behaviour unmanageable in home; risk to siblings; day to day stress of having to care for child needs; • Child removed from the family home to prevent risk or harm to the child through the child protection system; child at risk of abuse in the care of parents. • Significant event leading to parents unable to care for the child; i.e. parental illness or disability, orphaned, marital breakdown, poverty, homelessness. No more desperate measures

4. Parent of children with a disability have reported that should they have received the support required before they relinquished their child their child would continue to live in their home. • Parent: ‘’If I had of been provided the same package you provide to carers in family options I would have been able to continue to look after my child at home’’. A consultation conducted by the University of Sydney with 80+ families with children with a disability reported that “Without exception the primary desire of families was to care for their children at home” Supporting Families: Family Well-being and Children with Disabilities, 2003 No more desperate measures

5. From a practitioners POV: • Supports are poorly directed to respond to risk rather than supporting everyday family life. • Funded supports are not flexible enough to respond to the changing needs of children and families. • Parent of children with a disability don’t generally want to relinquish the day to day care of their children. • There’s a proportion of children in care with limited potential to return to the home of their birth family. • All children and young people have a fundamental right to family live in an environment that provides the best opportunity develop and grow, be safe and be loved. No more desperate measures

6. Current continuum of ‘care’ • Current provision is in-proportionately geared toward reactive responses to relinquishment: No more desperate measures

7. Toward a system of support: • Parents need the right supports at the right time in a place that supports the whole family: • ‘Meaningful’ in home and facility based respite options. • ‘Early’ behavioural support that covers the child’s development as they grow into adolescents and continue into adulthood. • Continuity of ISP’s that support the more than the child’s basic needs but have the flexibility to adapt to the child's changing needs as they grow. • Transitional strategies that manage significant • Support for the whole family; parents, siblings and other significant supports. • Support within communities where people live. No more desperate measures

8. Shifting the paradigm of practice • Centred around the needs of the child rather than our own values. • Breadth of services across a life course, the right services at the right time. • What is the definition of family and what that means to the child with a disability? • Defining transition points through to adulthood, what does it mean to be an adult? • Services that are meaningful and designed to support the fundamental developmental needs of the child. No more desperate measures

9. No More Desperate Measures… A call for better models of care for children and families experiencing or at risk of relinquishment and children in out of home care.

10. No More Desperate Measures… Part II Mapping Current Services

11. Developing a Continuum of Prevention and Risk Preventative Supports Risk orientated responses Child living in a family environment with one or more consistent parental figures. Social & environmental conditions favourable to child's health & wellbeing Unfavourable social & environmental conditions to child's health and wellbeing Behavioural patterns that promote health Adverse behavioural patterns Determinants Stability at home Few significant events in the home Instability at home Significant events in the home Parents make decisions in the best interest of the child & family Parental decision making not in the best interest of child & family Access to care and appropriate supports No access to care & appropriate supports Child without a family environment & consistent parental figures.

12. Prevention and Risk Continuum Child living in a family environment with one or more consistent parental figures. Helping Children with Autism Advocacy FaCHSIA Better Start FaCHSIA ECIS Travelling Teacher Flexible Support Packages Family based respite Community Health Facility Respite SDS’s In-home Respite Schools PBSU’s Disability Recreation Preventative Supports Child Protection Risk Orientated Responses Families First ISP’s KindaInc SS Advocacy Family Options Shared Supported Accom BIST Contingency Houses Transitional Living Units = Generic Services Child without a family environment & consistent parental figures. = Disability specifc