Ninth Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect (ACCAN)

Bromfield, Leah; Gillingham, Philip; Higgins, Daryl
Families who re-enter the child protection system: data from an Australian sample.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/2s5c-1.pdf (PDF 91K)

A major review of child protection in Victoria (Protecting Children: The Child Protection Outcomes Project, 2003, Allen Consulting Group) provided evidence of the multiple victimization of children, and that cumulative harm is widespread. This presentation explores cumulative harm, barriers to recognising cumulative harm in practice, systemic barriers to recognising cumulative harm,and why it is important to recognise it.

Cousins, Carolyn
'But the parent is trying' - tough decisions and avoiding a 'martyred' child.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/papers/3S3F-1.pdf (PDF 111K)

Among the most difficult issues workers face are situations where parents are attempting to parent adequately, but where their care is still not 'good enough'. This paper considers some of the issues involved in waiting for situations to improve when a child is being harmed on some level. When is it too harmful? How long is too long? It is argued that ultimately if a situation won't change, can't change, or it will take too long, then the needs of the most vulnerable family members, the children, have to be prioritised. The short and long term effects matter, whether there is intent or not. Discussion includes effects and harm to children; resilience; worker reluctance to 'give up'; the illusion of change; making judgements; personal reactions to the work and its effects; can it be any easier; and supervision.

Crundall, Monique; Mudaly, Neerosh; Mitchell, Janise; Evans, Neville; Tucci, Joe
Dimensions: a pilot program for children with a disability who engage in problem sexual behaviour.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/documents/accan/presentations/1S5E-2.pdf (PDF 140K)

Key themes in the literature are summarised in this presentation, and it is explained that one impetus for children with disabilities engaging in problem sexual behaviour can be sourced in experiences of abuse, disempowerment, distress and violation. In an exercise mapping the Victorian experience, 88 respondents identified 217 children. Characteristics of these children are summarised, a proposed aetiology of problem sexual behaviours is given, and needs and challenges for parents and carers identified, as are key challenges faced by the service system. Dimensions, a pilot intervention program, is then profiled.

De Hoogd, Debby; Mitchell, Janise; Tucci, Joe
Every Child Is Important: what parents have told us they want in parenting education and support: how to improve primary child abuse prevention initiatives.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/2S5C-3.pdf (PDF 68K)

Details are presented about the 'Every Child is Important' Campaign, and evaluation findings are summarised from the parenting education component, with key themes identified. The campaign has also tracked community attitudes about parenting, children and child abuse for the past three years, and finding are presented. Parenting needs are identified, messages from the literature are reported, and suggestions made on 'where to from here?'

Dobbs, Terry; Wood, Beth
Children's voices on physical punishment.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/papers/3S3J-1.pdf (PDF 151K)

The authors submit that ending the use of physical punishment of children is a critical issue in the prevention of child abuse. They first review the status of physical punishment of children world-wide and in New Zealand, then report young New Zealand children's views on physical discipline, based on a small-scale qualitative study involving interviewing ten children aged between 5 and 7.

Drielsma, Paul
The case for universal approaches in early childhood intervention services: lessons from the 'Gradient Story'.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/papers/2S4D-2.pdf (PDF 374K)

Socioeconomic gradients strongly correlate with an array of socially and developmentally significant indicators for young children. This has led to a redefining of how best to target those most in need in terms of positive outcomes and sustained effectiveness across a whole population over time. Such a redefinition has challenged traditional methodologies which would start with risk and high-needs assessments as 'entry' criteria for access to services and replaces these methodologies with approaches that utilise universal access. (Author abstract)

Firkins, Arthur
Discourse and decision making in child protection practice.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/papers/3S3D-1B.pdf (PDF 168K)

This paper draws upon a research project into the role of communication in professional child protection practices in order to explore how individual judgements play a part in the process of decision making; how this process depends on cooperation and communication among all professionals involved in the case; communication errors and their causes; and the role of risk assessment tools in guiding judgement.

Fleming, Jo
From the rhetoric to reality: the importance of fathers in building stronger families.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/papers/2S2C-2.pdf (PDF 142K)

It is the contention of this paper that, if we are to move beyond the rhetoric of strengthening families and make this a reality, we must take up the challenge of engaging fathers more constructively in their role. In particular it is argued that men have often been ignored or avoided in child welfare work. Recent literature about fathers and their involvement is reviewed and common themes are identified as the core reasons professionals should be involving fathers at every level of child and family welfare practice. Discussion includes fathers as a social construction, fathers in research, and fathers and professionals. Consequences of not involving fathers in social work are explored, as are ways of engaging men in child and family welfare work.

Goddard, Chris; Tucci, Joe
The decriminalisation of child abuse in Australia.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/1S3B-2.pdf (PDF 93K)

Previous research and statistical evidence is first provided in this presentation to show the disengagement of the criminal justice system in the domains of intervention about child abuse. Also highlighted is evidence of failure to recognise the link between adult to adult violence and the abuse and neglect of children. Preliminary outcomes are then presented from research in progress, involving an audit of forty cases referred to and provided with a specialist counselling service of the Australian Childhood Foundation in the past five years. Amongst the implications of findings is that child abuse is minimised in the policy sphere; that it is not a health problem, it is not a crime, it is a welfare problem; that there are inconsistent ideologies orienting practice; and that violence towards children is perceived as less serious than violence targeting adults.

Harnett, Paul
The Parents Under Pressure Program: preliminary results of a parenting program targeting parents involved with child protection agencies.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/3S2I-1.pdf (PDF 171K)

This presentation provides an overview of the Parents Under Pressure (PUP) program, a program specifically designed for high-risk parents with an abusive/neglectful sample. It explains what is meant by evidence based practice; summarises research findings of the program's effectiveness; and identifies issues in assessment and intervention with parents involved in child protection agencies.

Lamb, Robyn; Manns, Terry; Alsop, Estelle
How can I dance the lead if I don't know the steps?
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/3S3A-1.pdf (PDF 791K)

This presentation explores the effects of working in the area of child protection; discusses Vicarious Trauma, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and burnout; and reviews the impact of these in the personal and professional realms and for the organisation. Strategies for management to create a safe, happy workplace are suggested.

Liddell, Max; Goddard, Chris
Can we trust governments to protect children? Evidence from Woomera seen through the looking glass.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/papers/1S6A-1.pdf (PDF 120K)

A Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Federal and South Australian Governments regarding the handling of allegations of abuse at Woomera Detention Centre allows the South Australian government to investigate allegations of child abuse in detention centres but allocates duty of care for detainees to the Department of Immigration, Multiculturalism and Indigenous Affairs. It restricts follow-up action (that is, the real responsibility for ensuring that children are safe) to the Federal Government alone. In this paper, the authors analyse the Federal Government's paradoxical communication about the situation of children at Woomera, and the impact of this. They refer to studies of paradoxical communication and particularly from 'double-bind' theory, and provide examples of paradox or double-bind in the exchanges over children in detention. Examples of the direct impact of paradoxical communication on the children and parents are also presented. The authors conclude that politicians do understand the power of 'cognitive confusion', and they practice it constantly. In the case of children in detention however they have practiced it in ways which take it beyond what is moral, decent and defensible.

Mason, Jan; Michaux, Annette
Facilitating children's participation in child protection processes: the Starting out with Scarba project.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/1S6K-1.pdf (PDF 84K)

A partnership between The Benevolent Society's Scarba Services and the Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre, University of Western Sydney, the project outlined in this presentation aims to explore the obstacles to including children and other family members in child protection assessments for treatment; develop a tool for participatory assessments; evaluate and refine the tool; and examine feasibility of extending research to a larger research project on children's participation in child protection decision making processes. Key findings from the early stages of the project are summarised.

Mudaly, Neerosh
Listening to children's experiences of preventive and protective services.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/2S4E-1.pdf (PDF 237K)

The goal of the research outlined in this presentation was to provide the opportunity for the voices of children who had experienced abuse and violence to be heard. Ten children whose ages ranged from nine years to eighteen years participated in the research. The presentation reflects the children's experiences in their own words, their general comments on professional interventions, the police, and child protection. Themes that emerged from the children's views are summarised, and recommendations are made.

Naughton, Mick
Frequently notified families - new innovative, pro-active and integrated service responses.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/2S4D-1.pdf (PDF 148K)

This presentation describes a recent Victorian policy initiative aimed at improving the service response to frequently notified children and their families, and considers this initiative in the context of policy, systemic and case practice issues. Information is summarised about families frequently notified to Victoria's child protection service;challenges that arise for the service system identfied; key findings of detailed case reviews of frequently notified families undertaken by all areas hosting Innovation Projects are summarised; and details are provided about the Innovation Projects and their early outcomes.

Parkinson, Patrick
The Family Law Council's recommendations on family law and child protection.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/1S3H-2.pdf (PDF 64K)

In response to a disproportionate representation of child protection concerns in family law cases heading towards trial, this paper summarises the Family Law Council's recommendations regarding federal involvement in child protection (from Family Law and Child Protection: Final Report, 2002) including: the need for an investigatory capacity; the response of child protection authorities to abuse notifications in family law cases; responsibility for protective intervention; and for cases when neither federal not state systems protect children. A federal child protection service is proposed, with information about how it would operate, take action under state laws, the one court principle, and a federal-state co-ordinating committee.

Petrovski, Pandora; Matthey, Stephen; Lee, Lily
Child sexual abuse: 'having a hunch' - current practice and possible future development.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/1S6J-1.pdf (PDF 261K)

Mental health professionals frequently experience intuitions or 'hunches' regarding abuse and engage in subsequent decision-making processes about whether or not to make a report. The authors summarise findings from a survey in which clinicians responded to the following questions: What signs have given you a hunch that a child may be being sexually abused? Have you found any useful procedures to assist in your decision-making process? Would you find a brief self-report, validated measure that used a range of behavioural/emotional sexual abuse indicators useful? How likely would you be to use it?

Saunders, Bernadette J; Goddard, Chris
Parents' use of physical discipline: the thoughts, feelings and words of Australian children.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/papers/2S4E-2.pdf (PDF 143K)

This paper describes the context of an incident of physical punishment as perceived by children. It paints, in children's words, the picture that they see of an adult hitting a child. Eight questions are posed in the paper, the answers to which are drawn from data obtained from 31 children, aged between eight and sixteen years old, collected as part of ongoing PhD research. The questions are: Why are children physically punished? Why do parents either make a decision to hit their child, or hit their child without forethought? How do children describe the surroundings in which children are hit? What actually happens when a parent hits a child? How are adults who hit children perceived by children? How do children think adults' feel after hitting a child? How do children behave and feel after they have been hit? What do children think of this sequence of events? Feelings of powerlessness and subordination are dominant themes in the children's data.

Smith, Jennifer
Breaking down the silos within health services to strengthen the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention net.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/1S5I-2.pdf (PDF 251K)

Two processes used by the Child Advocacy Service to break down hospital silos to bring about a seamless approach to child protection in the Royal Children's Hospital and Health Service District, Brisbane, are described in this presentation. They involve supporting health practitioners working with the 'grey' cases, and a cross-hospital quality review process based on a health performance framework. Establishment issues are discussed; services and the service model described; benefits of an integrated child protection service summarised; quality assurance activities outlined; a case study used to illustrate some of the issues.

Stanley, Janet; Goddard, Chris
Hearing only half of the story by leaving out half of the violence.
http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/papers/stanley5.pdf (PDF 229K)

Child abuse has been 'discovered' serially, state the authors. One consequence of the evolving 'discovery' is that child abuse/neglect has developed into a number of fields of interest, rather than one which views family violence as a whole. The authors provide data from a Victorian study that gathered information on the types and extent of violence in a group of families who have involvement with child protection services and in which a child has been seriously abused. They look at multiple forms of abuse, violence between child caring partners, abuse by adults to other children in the family, violence between siblings, child violence towards an adult carer, violence to self, and criminal and or violent interaction with the community. They discuss the impact of domestic and other forms of violence on the child, emphasising the importance of taking into account all violence to which the child is exposed.

Tait, Paul; Foley, Sue; Palmer, Mark; Lamb, Robyn
Working with Munchausen by Proxy cases: definitely a team approach.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/2S2E-1.pdf (PDF 141K)

This presentation covers issues in managing Munchausen by Proxy cases; a child protection frame on MSBP; potential impacts on the child; dynamics issues; issues to be addressed in a hospital setting; assessment issues to be considered; case studies; principles for managing cases.

Thorpe, Ros; Thomson, Jane
Parents of children in the child protection system: working with them as stakeholders.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/papers/1S3A-1.pdf (PDF 128K)

This paper argues that children are not well served by a narrow focus on child protection. In working to protect children, we need to work with parents, and while we need knowledge of, for example, addictions, mental illness, intellectual disability, adult survivors of child sexual assault, family violence etc, we also need to remember that research evidence, suggests that good practice with parents is limited and many parents' experience of the child welfare system is negative. The paper explores the advantages of working actively with parents as stakeholders around the protective needs of their children, identifies current best practice examples in Australia and internationally and offers a vision for the future which includes strategies such as involving parents in their children's care, empowerment group work, and what good practice should entail.

Tucci, Joe; Goddard, Chris
Emotional abuse of children: a study of the narratives in protective assessment and intervention.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/3S3J-2.pdf (PDF 177K)

This presentation considers definitions of emotional abuse, developmental considerations in understanding emotional abuse, and the emotional and psychological domains of children. It then summarises findings from 62 interviews about cases identified by child protection services as having the primary abuse type substantiated as emotional abuse. The participants were children and young people, parents and extended family members, carers, child protection workers and managers, and community child welfare professionals. Arguing that we need greater diversity in the constructs we use in identifying and describing emotional abuse, the authors provide a snapshot of early results, reporting differing responses to the terms abandonment, rejection, parentification, verbal abuse, and inconsistent care, and performing a deconstruction exercise for each term. They conclude that decision-making about cases of emotional abuse is imbued with the same limitations that stem from a poor vocabulary surrounding emotional abuse.

Wilson, Sandy; Edwards, Kym; O'Neill, Kay
Proactively managing for outcomes in statutory child protection.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/accan/presentations/2S5I-1.pdf (PDF 132K)

This presentation outlines a child protection management model that has been implemented in Queensland, providing information about critical considerations in developing a potential model, participative planning processes, collaborative practices with other service providers, implementation and evaluation.

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