This article explores how trauma theory has become influential in recent years in the fields of c... more This article explores how trauma theory has become influential in recent years in the fields of child welfare, out-of-home care and youth justice. It argues that this has brought with it some serious concerns. These include a belief that traumainformed approaches provide the answer to most or even all the challenges faced in human service delivery and that it applies equally across a diverse range of clients. There is also a lack of clarity about the definitions and nature of trauma including the conflation of different types of adversity, and some evidence of rigid, unthinking applications of theory, research findings and clinical propositions.
This article examines the design of family preservation service evaluations. After a survey of re... more This article examines the design of family preservation service evaluations. After a survey of recent evaluations with both positive and negative outcomes, it focuses on three widely reported experimental evaluations and concludes that their equivocal findings must be treated with great caution. The difficulties with alternative research strategies are acknowledged, but to address the questions of concern regarding the efficacy of family preservation services, smaller-scale, localized evaluations are advocated because they allow for greater control over experimental variables.
Developing practice: the child youth and family work journal, 2015
Following the early lead of Victoria, there has been a strong move in all Australian states and t... more Following the early lead of Victoria, there has been a strong move in all Australian states and territories to explore the concept of therapeutic care in both residential and foster care settings and most jurisdictions now have funded and operating services in place. The need for a more therapeutic focus in out-of-home care has received consistent attention in the recent literature, both in Australia (e.g. Ainsworth & Hansen, 2008; Ainsworth & Thorpe, 2013; Bath, 2009; McLean, Price-Robertson & Robinson, 2011; Osborn & Bromfield, 2007) and internationally (Whittaker, del Valle & Holmes, 2015). Locally, there are a few encouraging early evaluations of service outcomes (e.g. Verso Consulting, 2011) but the practice field is still in an emergent phase with most out-of-home care programs clearly wedded to a 'care and accommodation' paradigm (Bath 2002-03). In NSW, Victoria and Queensland, advisory groups and steering committees are currently engaged in further exploration of con...
Developing practice: the child youth and family work journal, 2002
There are few areas of practice which present as much challenge as providing services for young p... more There are few areas of practice which present as much challenge as providing services for young people with high support needs. In the 'post-institutional' era many service models are being trialled or considered in a context which is characterised by a sense of crisis - for the young people and their service providers. As part of a response to this challenge, three leading practitioners/managers present contrasting opinions, based on their extensive practice experience and available research, on what must be done to develop a more effective service system.
This article identifies the three core defining characteristics of healing environments for child... more This article identifies the three core defining characteristics of healing environments for children and young people who have been exposed to chronic adversity and trauma. A large body of evidence highlights the pervasive and devastating developmental impacts of such exposure but there is also emerging evidence about the elements of living and learning environments that foster recovery and resilience. The Three Pillars framework has been developed to inform and empower those who live with or work with these young people but who are not necessarily engaged in formal therapy. CHRONIC ADVERSITY AND TRAUMA Dr Bruce Perry, one of the doyens of trauma research, has highlighted the plight of children who are ‘safe nowhere’, who are exposed to abuse and neglect, whose homes are chaotic, whose communities are fragmented and prone to violence, and whose schools can barely provide structure and safety. He observes that: These children must learn and grow despite a pervasive sense of threat. (...
In this article, Mark Freado and Howard Bath present the case of an 11 year boy who had been arre... more In this article, Mark Freado and Howard Bath present the case of an 11 year boy who had been arrested and charged with the murder of his two-year-old cousin. Because of the severity of the criminal charge against this boy, and despite his age, a transfer hearing was set to determine whether he would be tried as a juvenile or an adult. Such transfer hearings, which operate in 46 states, are highly controversial since they revoke the core principle of the juvenile court that decisions be made in the best interests of the child. The Developmental Audit was the key piece of evidence to support the case that this boy should be treated as a child rather than as an adult. This article explains in broad terms that the Developmental Audit addresses two questions: (1) How did this young person's life come to this state of affairs; and (2) what might be done now? The Audit is being applied across a wide range of settings, disciplines, and circumstances involving children and youth in confl...
Developing practice: the child youth and family work journal, 2014
Child protection systems have been developed to protect children from the harms that result from ... more Child protection systems have been developed to protect children from the harms that result from maltreatment. In Australia, four intra-familial maltreatment types are generally identified - sexual abuse (or exploitation), physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. The witnessing of family violence, which is sometimes considered to be a fifth category, is often classified as a form of emotional abuse.
Vida Bath was the only girl of six children born into a chronically poor family. Her birth certif... more Vida Bath was the only girl of six children born into a chronically poor family. Her birth certificate lists her father as a "general labourer." Her family travelled around New South Wales and southern Queensland, going wherever there might be work. She remembered being scared when her father had been drinking, especially on Friday nights, and running to hide when they heard him coming home from the pub. Her Christmas recollections were not the joys of relaxing with family, feasting, and opening presents, but living in fear with her brothers. When Vida was around six years old, she witnessed some truly horrific events that were devastating for her and the family. She was confined in an adult psychiatric hospital for a while and recalled being as scared there as at home; these are not the sort of places any child should be. Her mother was also institutionalized; what happened to the rest of the family is unknown. Vida was later moved to a children's home on Sydney's...
International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, 2019
Anger, fear, and sadness are frequently described emotions that are experienced by many young peo... more Anger, fear, and sadness are frequently described emotions that are experienced by many young people in care, but there is another common emotion that is less often named and understood. Shame — the deep sense of not belonging, of being defective or deficient in some way, of feeling unlovable — is a painful and pervasive social emotion that also involves our thinking processes and sense of self-worth. It has been described as a “pit of despair” that “envelops” many young people in care, a toxic force that drives behaviours we struggle to understand including some aggression and self-harm. Referencing Nathanson’s Compass of Shame, this article looks at some common coping strategies as well as masks or proxies of shame including the so-called “impostor” phenomenon – even the “drive for normality” described by James Anglin in 2002 could be seen as an attempt to escape from shame’s isolating clutches. Strategies for helping young people understand and cope with shame, including the fos...
This is the second of a two-part discussion about the development of residential care services in... more This is the second of a two-part discussion about the development of residential care services in Australia. It contains a review of some of the recent literature on residential care from Australia, the UK, Canada and the USA. It concludes with a look at the major themes and issues that emerge from this literature as well as the service trends and developments canvassed in Part I.
This is the first of a two-part discussion of the place of residential care services in Australia... more This is the first of a two-part discussion of the place of residential care services in Australia, which highlights the issues that are likely to influence the development of these services into the future. This paper explores service trends over the past few decades, the current place and focus of residential care services, the nature of the young people being placed into such services, and the imperative for developing a more needs-based approach to service delivery. It concludes with a review of recent calls for the development of therapeutic or treatment-orientated models and the initial steps in this direction that have been taken around the country.
All Australian statutory child welfare agencies collect and report data on children under their s... more All Australian statutory child welfare agencies collect and report data on children under their supervision, but it is not always clear from this data how many children are actually placed in out-of-home care. This paper reports on a survey of the eight state and territory statutory agencies which focused on comparative placement rates, the usage of the two major types of out-of-home care, and placement patterns for Aboriginal/TSI children. Comparisons are drawn with the USA and a number of European countries.
The recent collection of out-of-home care data by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare ... more The recent collection of out-of-home care data by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has enabled an analysis of placement trends for the three year period 1993-1996. Significant findings include a sharp increase in overall numbers of children placed into care and a continuing decline in the use of residential/group care. The data are considered in the context of longer term placement trends and some implications for service delivery are discussed.
Dr Howard Bath was most recently the Northern Territory Children's Commissioner, first appoin... more Dr Howard Bath was most recently the Northern Territory Children's Commissioner, first appointed in 2008 and re-appointed in 2012. Trained as a Clinical Psychologist, Howard has studied and worked in both Australia and the USA. He has worked as a youth worker, manager, Agency Director and clinician and was the inaugural Chair of the Child and Family Welfare Association of Australia, the peak body for service providers representing all states and territories. Howard has presented widely at conferences and training seminars and has authored numerous research reports and articles on topics including family preservation services, out-of-home care, behaviour management and child protection. Howard joined the Anglicare NT Board in April 2015 and now provides consultancy services through Allambi Care in NSW. He has been a longstanding supporter of the Children Australia journal and his generosity over the years in helping with a range of journal-related tasks, including being a former ...
This Opinion Piece was originally published in Developing Practice (issue 29) in October 2011. Cr... more This Opinion Piece was originally published in Developing Practice (issue 29) in October 2011. Critical points were omitted and a corrected version is being reprinted in this issue.
This article explores how trauma theory has become influential in recent years in the fields of c... more This article explores how trauma theory has become influential in recent years in the fields of child welfare, out-of-home care and youth justice. It argues that this has brought with it some serious concerns. These include a belief that traumainformed approaches provide the answer to most or even all the challenges faced in human service delivery and that it applies equally across a diverse range of clients. There is also a lack of clarity about the definitions and nature of trauma including the conflation of different types of adversity, and some evidence of rigid, unthinking applications of theory, research findings and clinical propositions.
This article examines the design of family preservation service evaluations. After a survey of re... more This article examines the design of family preservation service evaluations. After a survey of recent evaluations with both positive and negative outcomes, it focuses on three widely reported experimental evaluations and concludes that their equivocal findings must be treated with great caution. The difficulties with alternative research strategies are acknowledged, but to address the questions of concern regarding the efficacy of family preservation services, smaller-scale, localized evaluations are advocated because they allow for greater control over experimental variables.
Developing practice: the child youth and family work journal, 2015
Following the early lead of Victoria, there has been a strong move in all Australian states and t... more Following the early lead of Victoria, there has been a strong move in all Australian states and territories to explore the concept of therapeutic care in both residential and foster care settings and most jurisdictions now have funded and operating services in place. The need for a more therapeutic focus in out-of-home care has received consistent attention in the recent literature, both in Australia (e.g. Ainsworth & Hansen, 2008; Ainsworth & Thorpe, 2013; Bath, 2009; McLean, Price-Robertson & Robinson, 2011; Osborn & Bromfield, 2007) and internationally (Whittaker, del Valle & Holmes, 2015). Locally, there are a few encouraging early evaluations of service outcomes (e.g. Verso Consulting, 2011) but the practice field is still in an emergent phase with most out-of-home care programs clearly wedded to a 'care and accommodation' paradigm (Bath 2002-03). In NSW, Victoria and Queensland, advisory groups and steering committees are currently engaged in further exploration of con...
Developing practice: the child youth and family work journal, 2002
There are few areas of practice which present as much challenge as providing services for young p... more There are few areas of practice which present as much challenge as providing services for young people with high support needs. In the 'post-institutional' era many service models are being trialled or considered in a context which is characterised by a sense of crisis - for the young people and their service providers. As part of a response to this challenge, three leading practitioners/managers present contrasting opinions, based on their extensive practice experience and available research, on what must be done to develop a more effective service system.
This article identifies the three core defining characteristics of healing environments for child... more This article identifies the three core defining characteristics of healing environments for children and young people who have been exposed to chronic adversity and trauma. A large body of evidence highlights the pervasive and devastating developmental impacts of such exposure but there is also emerging evidence about the elements of living and learning environments that foster recovery and resilience. The Three Pillars framework has been developed to inform and empower those who live with or work with these young people but who are not necessarily engaged in formal therapy. CHRONIC ADVERSITY AND TRAUMA Dr Bruce Perry, one of the doyens of trauma research, has highlighted the plight of children who are ‘safe nowhere’, who are exposed to abuse and neglect, whose homes are chaotic, whose communities are fragmented and prone to violence, and whose schools can barely provide structure and safety. He observes that: These children must learn and grow despite a pervasive sense of threat. (...
In this article, Mark Freado and Howard Bath present the case of an 11 year boy who had been arre... more In this article, Mark Freado and Howard Bath present the case of an 11 year boy who had been arrested and charged with the murder of his two-year-old cousin. Because of the severity of the criminal charge against this boy, and despite his age, a transfer hearing was set to determine whether he would be tried as a juvenile or an adult. Such transfer hearings, which operate in 46 states, are highly controversial since they revoke the core principle of the juvenile court that decisions be made in the best interests of the child. The Developmental Audit was the key piece of evidence to support the case that this boy should be treated as a child rather than as an adult. This article explains in broad terms that the Developmental Audit addresses two questions: (1) How did this young person's life come to this state of affairs; and (2) what might be done now? The Audit is being applied across a wide range of settings, disciplines, and circumstances involving children and youth in confl...
Developing practice: the child youth and family work journal, 2014
Child protection systems have been developed to protect children from the harms that result from ... more Child protection systems have been developed to protect children from the harms that result from maltreatment. In Australia, four intra-familial maltreatment types are generally identified - sexual abuse (or exploitation), physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. The witnessing of family violence, which is sometimes considered to be a fifth category, is often classified as a form of emotional abuse.
Vida Bath was the only girl of six children born into a chronically poor family. Her birth certif... more Vida Bath was the only girl of six children born into a chronically poor family. Her birth certificate lists her father as a "general labourer." Her family travelled around New South Wales and southern Queensland, going wherever there might be work. She remembered being scared when her father had been drinking, especially on Friday nights, and running to hide when they heard him coming home from the pub. Her Christmas recollections were not the joys of relaxing with family, feasting, and opening presents, but living in fear with her brothers. When Vida was around six years old, she witnessed some truly horrific events that were devastating for her and the family. She was confined in an adult psychiatric hospital for a while and recalled being as scared there as at home; these are not the sort of places any child should be. Her mother was also institutionalized; what happened to the rest of the family is unknown. Vida was later moved to a children's home on Sydney's...
International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, 2019
Anger, fear, and sadness are frequently described emotions that are experienced by many young peo... more Anger, fear, and sadness are frequently described emotions that are experienced by many young people in care, but there is another common emotion that is less often named and understood. Shame — the deep sense of not belonging, of being defective or deficient in some way, of feeling unlovable — is a painful and pervasive social emotion that also involves our thinking processes and sense of self-worth. It has been described as a “pit of despair” that “envelops” many young people in care, a toxic force that drives behaviours we struggle to understand including some aggression and self-harm. Referencing Nathanson’s Compass of Shame, this article looks at some common coping strategies as well as masks or proxies of shame including the so-called “impostor” phenomenon – even the “drive for normality” described by James Anglin in 2002 could be seen as an attempt to escape from shame’s isolating clutches. Strategies for helping young people understand and cope with shame, including the fos...
This is the second of a two-part discussion about the development of residential care services in... more This is the second of a two-part discussion about the development of residential care services in Australia. It contains a review of some of the recent literature on residential care from Australia, the UK, Canada and the USA. It concludes with a look at the major themes and issues that emerge from this literature as well as the service trends and developments canvassed in Part I.
This is the first of a two-part discussion of the place of residential care services in Australia... more This is the first of a two-part discussion of the place of residential care services in Australia, which highlights the issues that are likely to influence the development of these services into the future. This paper explores service trends over the past few decades, the current place and focus of residential care services, the nature of the young people being placed into such services, and the imperative for developing a more needs-based approach to service delivery. It concludes with a review of recent calls for the development of therapeutic or treatment-orientated models and the initial steps in this direction that have been taken around the country.
All Australian statutory child welfare agencies collect and report data on children under their s... more All Australian statutory child welfare agencies collect and report data on children under their supervision, but it is not always clear from this data how many children are actually placed in out-of-home care. This paper reports on a survey of the eight state and territory statutory agencies which focused on comparative placement rates, the usage of the two major types of out-of-home care, and placement patterns for Aboriginal/TSI children. Comparisons are drawn with the USA and a number of European countries.
The recent collection of out-of-home care data by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare ... more The recent collection of out-of-home care data by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has enabled an analysis of placement trends for the three year period 1993-1996. Significant findings include a sharp increase in overall numbers of children placed into care and a continuing decline in the use of residential/group care. The data are considered in the context of longer term placement trends and some implications for service delivery are discussed.
Dr Howard Bath was most recently the Northern Territory Children's Commissioner, first appoin... more Dr Howard Bath was most recently the Northern Territory Children's Commissioner, first appointed in 2008 and re-appointed in 2012. Trained as a Clinical Psychologist, Howard has studied and worked in both Australia and the USA. He has worked as a youth worker, manager, Agency Director and clinician and was the inaugural Chair of the Child and Family Welfare Association of Australia, the peak body for service providers representing all states and territories. Howard has presented widely at conferences and training seminars and has authored numerous research reports and articles on topics including family preservation services, out-of-home care, behaviour management and child protection. Howard joined the Anglicare NT Board in April 2015 and now provides consultancy services through Allambi Care in NSW. He has been a longstanding supporter of the Children Australia journal and his generosity over the years in helping with a range of journal-related tasks, including being a former ...
This Opinion Piece was originally published in Developing Practice (issue 29) in October 2011. Cr... more This Opinion Piece was originally published in Developing Practice (issue 29) in October 2011. Critical points were omitted and a corrected version is being reprinted in this issue.
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