Adolescents diagnosed with a chronic illness such as type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) face the typical physical and psychosocial challenges associated with adolescence, as well as the additional challenges of having to cope with the daily stressors of living with a chronic illness. In order to explore coping strategies in this population of adolescents, and to compare the constructs with those identified by the Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS), four focus groups were conducted with 13 adolescents with T1DM. The qualitative data was analysed using content analysis and grouped according to the ACS. Prevalent nonproductive coping strategies included Tension Reduction (the use of maladaptive techniques to reduce tension/stress), Ignore the Problem and Keep to Self. Prevalent productive coping strategies included Seek Social Support, Physical Recreation and Seek Relaxing Diversions. The qualitative data not only affirmed the conceptual areas of the ACS for use with adolescents with T1DM, but also highlighted the need to teach coping strategies to adolescents with T1DM to give them an additional skill set to help them better manage the challenges of diabetes.

Many traumatised children in Australia do not receive the type of trauma-focused treatment endorsed by international guidelines and, as such, they suffer from the consequences of intergenerational trauma. Even when trauma-focused treatment is available, there is a group of children who are difficult to engage in treatment and do not want to talk about their traumatic memories. Clinicians are often reluctant to address the trauma, for fear of ‘waking up sleeping dogs’. All children deserve a chance to heal from trauma and I believe we, as a society, have a responsibility to provide children with appropriate services and treatment methods to help them achieve this. This article describes the Sleeping Dogs method, a three-phased trauma-focused treatment method, based on a collaborative use of interventions by therapists, child-protection workers, residential staff, school and the child's network. A Six Test Form is used to analyse the possible reasons why the child is unable to talk about his or her traumatic memories, for which interventions are planned. Case examples with children who can be difficult to engage in trauma-focused treatment are used to illustrate interventions. Clinical experiences show the Sleeping Dogs method has been successfully used internationally, as well as remote communities in Australia.

When Australia signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, federal and state governments agreed, under Article 19, to create appropriate legislation and all necessary social and educational measures to protect children from all forms of abuse and exploitation and provide treatment and social support for victims and their carers. Seventeen years later, Australian child advocates are wondering where those services are, especially for those outside state capital cities. More importantly, where is the justice system that protects children and caters for victims of sexual abuse?

Australia, in common with other former British colonies, inherited the Westminster adversarial system, described by Mallon and White (1995, p. 50, cited in McGrath 2005) as:

Foster care is in crisis in most western countries, including Australia. Increasing numbers of children are being placed in out-of-home care at a younger age due to arange of issues, including parental substance abuse.

Mirror Families is an early intervention model which seeks to address the underlying causes of the foster care crisis. It supports positive, lifelong outcomes for vulnerable children and young people who are at risk of being placed outside their birth families or who are already in kinship, foster and permanent care.

This paper focuses on how a ‘village’, or extended family, can be created for each child so that lifelong (and beyond) supportive relationships can be established and nurtured. The key question which informs the model is: ‘Who will be therefor the grandchildren?’

Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle ‘Little Children are Sacred’: Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse, which has come to be known as the ‘Little Children are Sacred’ Report, was released in late June 2007 (Wild & Anderson 2007). The Report has received little analysis. Rather it is the response by the Commonwealth Government to the Report's findings that has dominated debate. Despite repeated accounts of child neglect provided to the inquiry, these accounts seemed to be viewed as the landscape in which child sexual abuse occurs, rather than a significant and urgent issue in their own right. The relegation of child neglect to background mirrors what research elsewhere tells us about what happens to child neglect referrals; lacking the sense of immediacy and danger of child sexual abuse, they are frequently minimised or overlooked.

This paper is an attempt to refocus attention on the Report itself through a lens of child neglect, and suggests that in limiting the terms of reference to child sexual abuse, the Report missed the opportunity to engage with the significant issue of child neglect and the practice of child protection work in cases of child neglect.

There is sparse research on playgroups for fathers, therefore, the benefits of such programmes are difficult to discern. However, there is much research on the positive developmental outcomes children experience with involved fathers (Appl, Brown, & Stone, 2008; Evans, Harrison, Rempel, & Slater, 2006; Green, 2003; Rosenberg & Wilcox, 2006). This research focused on a Dad's playgroup run as part of the Communities for Children Logan Project in south-east Queensland, Australia. The research found that the fathers gained positive results as being a part of the playgroup, including improved family functioning, a feeling of belonging to a community in which advice was freely available, improved relationships with their child/children and feelings that this programme met the unique needs of fathers when others in the community have not. These needs were met through the play environment, scheduling, staffing and support networks.

This qualitative study used a narrative approach to address the vulnerabilities and problems experienced by the children of sex workers in Iran. A purposive sample of women who were referred to drop-in centres were invited to take part in semi-structured interviews. An analysis of the data identified 8 main themes and 12 sub-themes, most of which related to risks and harm being perpetrated on the children of sex workers. The main risk to these children was the likelihood that they would escape from home and become sex workers themselves. Also identified as problematic was the risk of child labour, becoming members of offending groups and becoming a member of a brothel.

This article addresses the challenges facing the child welfare system in general, and child protection practice in particular, in responding to female genital mutilation (FGM) in an Australian context. Policy and programmatic responses to FGM are analysed to identify how child welfare concerns may be addressed in a culturally sensitive manner. PGM is depicted as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, related to a complex of inter-connected cultural, social, economic, religious, gender and migration issues. An appropriate response is one that acknowledges these antecedents through the utilisation of a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach. Legal and child protection responses to FGM are inadequate if operating in isolation and are most effective as adjuncts to community development strategies that are aimed at education, information dissemination and consciousness raising among affected communities. More work needs to be undertaken to develop frameworks for practitioners in a cross-cultural context, particularly in the light of continued settlement within Australia of migrant and refugee communities from countries with different child-rearing practices and beliefs.

This paper discusses the need for a national early childhood intervention policy in Australia, including a universal approach to children's services as a platform for the prevention of child abuse and neglect, supporting families and enriching the lives of all children.

It considers the literature on early intervention, including the theoretical and research base of successful programs and the link between early intervention and the prevention of child abuse and neglect. It examines the way the child welfare and children's services sectors have grown and the imperative at the beginning of the 21st century for a closer alignment of services.

The United Kingdom's ‘Sure Start’ early intervention strategy is considered in so far as it attempts to develop a more comprehensive approach to child welfare by developing programs which are based on the research. Finally the paper asserts that recent strategies introduced by Federal and State Governments to promote childhood health and wellbeing are positive first steps, but need to go further to seriously address increasing numbers of children reported as suffering harm through abuse and/or neglect.

This paper reports on recently completed research which explores the key question of whether public child protection practice requires a vision embedded in family empowerment. The principle objective of the study was to promote our understanding of the experiences families have with child protection services. The project progressed in two different phases. In phase one, a qualitative in-depth interviewing method was applied to explore the experiences and views of the families. The findings were then thematically analysed through a critical theoretical process. For the second phase, we developed an empowerment framework to analyse and map the key themes from the findings, which outlines the families’ difficulties to engage with, and their alienation from, the services in all stages of interventions. The mapping outcomes indicate a link between the process of empowering the families and the process of improving the child protection service.

This program development report describes the birth of ‘Wondering From the Womb’, a self-determined antenatal yarning resource created through a culturally respectful action research project undertaken in rural Victoria with Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members and professionals. The qualitative reviews completed within Community involved 40 participants who shared their wisdom and experiences regarding antenatal health, parenting and child-rearing practise and connection to Country. The resulting yarning resource, written from the perspective of a baby in the womb, has encouraged curiosity and wonder about what antenates can teach adults and community members regarding their life, learning and healing. Future uses for such a resource are identified with an aim to continue self-determined, culturally respectful service delivery for Indigenous babies, children and families across the Loddon Mallee region.

This opinion piece draws on the literature regarding absconding from care and its links with child sexual exploitation and trauma. The author draws on her experience in the child protection, out-of-home care and therapeutic services to raise some questions and suggest some themes about how the system responds when young people run away from what is purportedly safe to what is palpably unsafe. The article concludes with a brief description of trauma-informed practice and suggests that this concept is a useful contribution in our response to helping young people no longer needing to run.

This paper is a reflective commentary that highlights some of the issues that impacted upon my thinking and perspectives as a social worker working in the child, youth and family sector. The paper takes the form of a narrative with some accounts of incidents that were memorable and challenged the ways I thought about myself and issues we face in the sector. My concerns are that, while there are many aspects of the work done in this sector in the past that we don't want to repeat, there are also features of service delivery that we overlook in the contemporary tendency to want quick solutions and pursue trends. The conclusions I have come to include the need for community-based, co-located services for parents and children who need supports and out-of-home care responses (OOHC).

Caring is the central activity for many women who care for children with disabilities and other dependent relatives and it circumscribes virtually all of the other activities they carry out. This paper will compare the daily experiences of such women (who have been participants in the author’s recent research into home-based care) with what has been written in social work literature about women who ‘care’.

A number of key authors maintain sibling relationships are absolutely crucial when considering out-of-home care options, while policy derived from theory and practice must guarantee that the best interests of the child(ren) are taken into account. Furthermore, placing siblings together is most likely to be a protective factor against placement breakdown. This being the case, care plans should focus on ensuring sibling connectedness and the maintenance of emotional bonds into adulthood.

This paper discusses current out-of-home care policy and practice in Western Australia which incorporates research from (1) attachment theory, (2) family structure, (3) cultural diversity, (4) development, (5) contact, (6) care planning, and (7) long-term care to provide guidance when considering siblings entering the out-of-home care system. The authors contend that this approach improves decision making practice and is consistent with new legislation — the Children and Community Services Act 2004, which is expected to be introduced in Western Australia on 1 March 2006, and which has as its underlying principle the best interests of the child.

Paying attention to under-represented voices is considered by some researchers to be one of the current critical issues in child welfare (Kufeldt & McKenzie 2003; Mason & Gibson 2004). Children and young people in care have often been the targets of public policy, the subjects of research projects and the focus of practice that is aimed at protecting them, but not necessarily involving them. Is there really a preparedness to invite children and young people to have a say? Do adults and professionals rather presume to know what is best? Children and young people have much to offer researchers and policy makers by giving their opinions and expressing their views about a range of matters that concern them. This paper will discuss a Department of Families' initiative in the Mackay Whitsunday Region that invites children and young people to be part of the community of practice. It will showcase the successful positioning of eight to ten young people within the research, practice and policy agenda, and outline a vision to champion children and young people's participation at a community practice level throughout Australia. It will explore the journey of placing the voice of children and young people at the centre of the child protection system.