scholarly journals Working for the Welfare: Support and Supervision Needs of Indigenous Australian Child Protection Practitioners

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 277
Author(s):  
Fiona Oates ◽  
Kaylene Malthouse
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Historical Experience ◽  
Australian Child ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
Protection Systems ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
The Government ◽  
Depth Interviews

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are disproportionately represented in all parts of the child protection system in Australia. The recruitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners into child protection systems to work with Indigenous families at risk underpins the government strategy to reduce this over-representation. However, little is known about the experiences of Indigenous people who undertake child protection work or what their support and supervision needs may be. This research is centered on Indigenous Australian child protection practitioners as experts in their own experiences and as such includes large excerpts of their own narratives throughout. Practitioner narratives were collected via qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews. Critical theory and decolonising frameworks underpinned the research design. The study found that Indigenous child protection practitioners have a unique place in the families, communities and profession. Many viewed their work in the child protection field as an extension of their Indigeneity. This coupled with the historical experience of state-sanctioned removal of Indigenous children during colonisation and contemporarily, informs the need for child protection workplaces to re-think the support and supervision afforded to Indigenous practitioners.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle is about self determination

1999 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Ah Kee ◽  
Clare Tilbury
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Torres Strait Islander People ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Australian Child ◽  
Child Placement ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Taking Action

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle has been the policy guiding the placement of indigenous children in most Australian child protection jurisdictions for around fifteen years. The Principle requires the involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community representatives in decision making concerning indigenous children, and ensuring that alternative care placements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander careproviders.Most Jurisdictions still have a significant number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children placed with non-indigenous careproviders, and community based Aboriginal and Islander child care agencies continue to express dissatisfaction about the nature and level of consultation which occurs when welfare departments are taking action to protect indigenous children.This paper, which was presented at the IFCO conference in Melbourne in July 1999, examines why there has been such limited improvement in Child Placement Principle outcomes. Work undertaken in Queensland to address the over representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the child protection system will be outlined from both a departmental and community perspective. The paper argues that if strategies for addressing these issues are not located within a framework of self determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, then they will not work.

scholarly journals “My work? Well, I live it and breathe it”: The seamless connect between the professional and personal/community self in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Dickson
Keyword(s):  
Health Worker ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Indigenous Research ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Torres Strait Islander Health

Abstract Background Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals often juggle the challenges of working and living in the same community in ways that are positive for both themselves and their clients. This study specifically examines the strategies Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals have developed to enable them to feel empowered by the sense of being always visible or perceived as being always available. Findings provide examples of how participants (Team Members) established a seamless working self, including how they often held different perspectives to many work colleagues, how Team Members were always visible to community and how Team Members were comfortable to be seen as working when not at work. Methods This qualitative study engages an Indigenous research methodology and uses an Indigenous method, PhotoYarning, to explore lived experiences of a group (n = 15) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers as they worked in the Australian health sector. Results The analysis presented here comes from data generated through PhotoYarning sessions. Team Members in this study all work in health care settings in the communities in which they also live, they manage an extremely complex network of interactions and relationships in their daily working lives. They occupy an ambivalent, and sometimes ambiguous, position as representing both their health profession and their community. This article explores examples of what working with seamlessness involved, with findings citing four main themes: (1) Being fellow members of their cultural community, (2) the feeling of always being visible to community as a health worker, (3) the feeling of always being available as a health worker to community even when not at work and (4) the need to set an example. Conclusions While creating the seamlessness of working and living in the same community was not easy, Team Members considered it an important feature of the work they did and vital if they were to be able to provide quality health service to their community. However, they reported that the seamless working self was at odds with the way many of their non-Indigenous Australian colleagues worked and it was not well understood.

scholarly journals Upholding heightened expectations of Indigenous children? Parents do, teachers do not

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Huw Peacock ◽  
Jacob Prehn ◽  
Michael A. Guerzoni ◽  
Wendy Aitken ◽  
Clair Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Primary Caregiver ◽  
Further Training ◽  
Secondary Schooling ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Biological Mothers ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Biological Fathers

Abstract This paper argues that a component of increasing the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youths completing their secondary education is having parents and teachers maintain heightened expectations of these children in achieving this goal. To understand this phenomenon, we investigate the importance of, and discrepancies between, primary caregiver and teacher outlooks regarding Indigenous youths completing year 12. For the purpose of this paper, we adopt the term ‘primary caregiver’ in place of parent. This is because the majority (87.7%) of P1s analysed are the biological mothers with the remainder being close female relatives. P2s analysed are all male, 93.3% are biological fathers; remainder are step-fathers or adoptive fathers. This paper uses quantitative data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children to measure expectations from parents and teachers of Indigenous children. Results suggest that parents maintain exceptionally high expectations of their children, while teacher's expectations significantly decline over the course of Indigenous children's primary and secondary schooling years. We suggest that relationships and communication between parents and teachers, regarding expectations of students, are important to establishing an equilibrium in expectations of children, and that teachers may benefit from further training to address any underlying biases towards Indigenous children.

Barriers and solutions: Australian Indigenous practitioners on addressing disproportionate representation of Indigenous Australian children known to statutory child protection

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Oates
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Disproportionate Representation ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Doctoral Study ◽  
Indigenous Child ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Programme Design ◽  
Indigenous Children

The rate of Indigenous child removal in Australia has been referred to as an epidemic. With numbers predicted to increase in the near to medium future exploring alternative ways to engage Indigenous children and families is critical. This article outlines the views of Indigenous practitioners collected as part of a doctoral study exploring the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners who undertake child protection work in Australia. Practitioner narratives were elicited by way of qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews. The narratives of practitioners identify barriers in contemporary statutory child protection practices that may contribute to the disproportionate representation of Indigenous children in the statutory child protection system. Potential solutions offered by practitioners including cultural supervision for non-Indigenous practitioners are also outlined. The narratives of participants indicate that Indigenous practitioner-led policy, practice, training and programme design is critical to addressing the escalating rates of Indigenous child removal in Australia.

scholarly journals Listening to and learning from the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to facilitate success

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katelyn Barney
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Future Developments ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
The University ◽  
Tertiary Study

Drawing on interviews with current and past Indigenous undergraduate students at the University of Queensland (UQ), this paper reports on findings from a project that explored the experiences of Indigenous Australian students and identified inhibitors and success factors for students. It also discusses one of the outcomes of the project and planned future developments that aim to provide better support for Indigenous Australian students at UQ. By knowing and acting upon the kinds of mechanisms that can assist Indigenous students, their experiences of tertiary study can be enhanced, leading to more students enrolling in and completing university study.

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