Foster Care Victoria

We’ve referred to the challenges faced by young people leaving care before, this article gives quite a few perspectives on the reasons why children who have a state care or foster care background are at a higher risk of homelessness and is well worth a read.

Also this article also shows some movement from the government on foster care.

An article published today in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald documents federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin’s comments about a discussion paper released yesterday. You can read the article here . It will be interesting to see if the new Federal Government will take a closer interest in child protection issues.

A local Victorian paper recently wrote an article about the need for baby carers becasue of “A surge in abandoned babies and a shortage of foster carers”. While the article prompted an excellent level of publicity for foster care and generated an unprecedented number of calls from potential foster carers, we thought it best to clarify the underlying messages in the article.

Abandonment is such an powerful word; it is accusational and resentful for the birth family as much as it is sympathetic towards the child. It is so easy to begin to blame birth families of children in care, especially when they are faceless and voiceless.

One way or another, a person only neglects the needs of their own child when their own problems are so huge that they’re towering over them, clouding their ability to see anything else. These problems can include drugs, alcohol, mental illness, gambling addiction, homeslessness or poverty just to name a few. 

So while “abandoned babies” grabs headlines, we must remember that most parents love their children with all their hearts. In all likelihood, our society abandoned these parents.

Although this article is now almost a month old, having just come across it I thought I would post the link regardless.

Diversity should be embraced; all children are different and a variety of family types and qualities within a carer pool is the key to providing care which meets the needs of each individual child.

There is a support group specificially to address issues which concern gay and lesbain carers specifically.

Of course, any family or person wishing to become involved in foster care in Victoria must undergo training which is compulsary under Victorian law, and they must also go through an assessment process.

Major components of disability programs for foster care are respite care and support through “Friends”. On Monday night Four Corners aired a program called “In My Shoes”, a very confronting perspective of why disability supports such as these are necessary for families struggling to cope with the 24hour needs of children with Disabilities. Although I highly recommend the program or even just a read of the transcript for an insight into challenges faced, there seem to be some inaccuracies in the representation of supports such as respite care which are available.

I would also like to relate some of the statements made by the program to the Victorian context (I don’t know enough about the specifics in other states to comment more broadly).

This program interviewed Sharon Guest and Stuart Neale, caring for their severely disabled daughter, Jessie, who said that the only choices offered to them was to continue caring without support or relinquish their child to Child Protection (in NSW, DOCs). DOCs has actually responded to these statements and other ambigous claims, which was actually a relief to read since the allegations are really out of sink with what I know to be the case here in Victoria. Its a shame that these points couldn’t be cleared up before the program went to air.

The organisation I work for offers families of children with disabilities Respite Care or “Shared Family Care”. For example, a child might live with a foster carer during the week, and at home on the weekends. These kinds of options are negotiated with the family according to their needs and the ability we have to meet them. These are what we call Voluntary Placements and can be ended any time by the family.

The Disability Program supports children and young people up to the age of 18 and beyond in this type of Home Based Care.

I also would like to mention that the majority of children supported by the Disability Program have Intellectual Disabilities, such as developmental delays or autism, rather than the common perception of disability as automatically associated with wheel-chairs. Like all programs though, the Disability Program is chronically short of carers which makes finding ideal placements sometimes very difficult.

Happily, it seems that some amendments in this year’s Federal Budget are pleasing carer groups and families, which is great news for families.

The Age has echoed our recent experiences in increases in the number of babies and young children in Victoria. This article also has some tangible stats which helps give some perspective to the issue, and I think is a more genuine interrogation of why this is occurring, in this case, attributed to the baby boom. I’m no expert so I could neither endorse or reject this opinion, but it is an interesting idea to add to the mix.

Of course, add we’ve mentioned before, an increase in babies needing placements added to a strained supply of carers, particularly those available for the amount of time needed to care for a baby (ie. not in paid employment) and its little wonder we’ve been challenged in this respect over the past few months.

Although I agree with most of this report, I think there is room to increase funding without running the risk of attracting people for the wrong reasons, ie. money. Needless to say, there are many many differing opinions out there!

You can also listen to this story.

Kinship care is when a child is placed under the care of a family member, often a grandparent, Aunt or Uncle, and as The Age has reported today, its on the rise.

Kinship care is often seen as preferable to a foster care placement outside the child’s family where it is appropriate and available. But the telling part of this article is the quote from Cathy Humphreys, a Melbourne University professor in child and family welfare, “It [Kinship Care] can be very good or it can be very difficult, so each situation has to be looked at differently. It’s not one size fits all.”

*This photo belongs to the Herald Sun

Yesterday’s article, Hard Times Foster and Carer Crisisin the Herald Sun has sparked quite a response with many calls to the Centre for Excellence from people wanting to find out more which is fantastic news.

Although the online comments appear to show a) a misunderstanding in the community about foster care and how the system works, and b) some disgruntled past and potential carers frustrated at a lack of support and resources.

To the latter category of people, I hear you and I agree, though I think we should all raise our hats to both DHS workers and foster care workers alike for their perseverance in a thankless, stressful, under-paid, under-staffed, under-funded and under-resourced job. While I am sorry to hear of negative experiences of foster care all I can say is that we are all doing the best we can.

To the former category, removal of children is never an easy decision and is always a last resort. This issue is completely separate Apology made on February 13th which acknowledged the injustice of forced removal based on race, rather than on the safety and best interests of the child. Foster care is the temporary care of a child where the hope is always on reunification with the birth family. Foster carers are not expected to be perfect but it is a responsibility of those in the field to make sure that a child is safe from harm and provided with adequate care.

Although foster care is a challenging role at times, as Kylie will attest, it is also an immensely rewarding one.

Anyone interested should consider coming along to an information evening, check the events listing for details.

Maroondah Leader had this report in last week’s paper.

Indeed, homelessness and “Teens sleep rough” are the hidden daily tragedies occurring throughout Melbourne’s East. Similarly, the daily miracles undertaken by foster carers everyday are just as hidden. With steadily declining numbers of carers available, foster care placements for children and young people of all ages are becoming increasingly difficult to make.

In the context of the Australia’s Homeless Youth report’s findings that “Young people with a ‘care background’ are over-represented in the youth homeless population”, carers involved in the Adolescent Care Program (ACP) focus on the transferal of life skills towards independence. In this way, each young person will hopefully see a string of opportunities in front of them as they venture into adulthood, rather than insurmountable obstacles leading to cycles of risk and harm.

The Australia’s Homeless Youth report was a timely reminder of why foster care is the responsibility of us all.

Anglicare Victoria invites anyone who would like to know more about foster care to an Information Evening or call 1300 889 335.