New research from DoCS' Specialist Psychologist Services Unit has identified that 'neglect and sexual abuse can have the same impact on a child's mental development as brain injury'.
It’s not often that fostering and children in care, with all the privacy constraints that appropriately go with it, can be so open. If you are thinking of fostering, or are a carer, Australian Story provides a very detailed and personal view of children in care from the perspective of all parties.
Caroline Jones interviews Yael Abraham (23-03-09):
While we’re on the subject of weight, we can tell you that on the face of it this article made us choke over our low fat breakfast cereal.
The first paragraph reads ‘SEVERELY obese children should be notified to child protection authorities, and even taken into care, if their parents are unwilling or unable to help them lose weight, experts have argued.’
‘MORE than 150 children who died in NSW last year came from families that were known to the Department of Community Services. The figure, a quarter of all child deaths in the state, represents a 40 per cent increase on the previous year in the number of so-called "reviewable" deaths. Rise in deaths of 'at risk' children (The Australian, Caroline Overington | October 16, 2008).
‘Fix DOCs’ we hear people shriek. But you can’t fix a problem at the macro level. So you can’t just ‘fix DOCs’.
