Child and family welfare studies go global
At the Padua conference, from left, Carlina Black, Annette Jackson, Robyn Miller, Minister Lisa Neville, Dr McNamara, Jane Harrison, Gill Callister (Executive Director, Mental Health and Drugs Division, Department of Human Services) and Margarita Frederico.
New and stronger links between policy-makers and researchers around the world were forged at an international research conference on child, youth and family services held in Padua, Italy in March.
Lecturer in Social Work, Dr Patricia McNamara, says the conference identified an area of unmet need in international child and family research and provided a springboard for greater crossnational collaborations.
Researchers and policymakers in the UK and US especially, she says, are keen to forge links with researchers in Victoria following the dissemination of their findings in studies of preventative child protection programs and a range of therapies.
Dr McNamara, a key organiser of the four-day conference, said La Trobe's participation capitalised on the University's involvement in cross-national research collaborations over the past five years.
This work received strong support from practitioners and policy-makers, especially her colleagues at Berry Street Victoria, Dr McNamara's partners in the Melbourne component of a recent sevencountry study of intervention outcomes in community-based family centres.
The La Trobe-Berry Street partnership also paved the way for the University's role in a cross-national study of parenting programs, launched at the conference.
Victoria's Minister for Community Services, Lisa Neville, attended the conference. She said she had been heartened to hear the positive comments made about reforms under way in Victoria. While no system was ever perfect, she said other Australian and international jurisdictions were looking at what was happening in Victoria.
'If we continue our focus on earlier intervention, on meeting the therapeutic needs of children, on improving the way we maintain linkages for Aboriginal children with their community and culture – all of which feature in our new legislation – and if we continue to do this in partnership between Government and community services, then we will achieve a system that is doing its best for vulnerable children, young people and families in Victoria.
'The lessons I have learnt from this opportunity to meet experts in out-of-home care from around the world, will greatly help the review I am leading into Victoria's out-ofhome care system.'
Dr McNamara says the conference was so successful its first target of 350 participants had to be extended to 480.
'Attendees included researchers from emerging Eastern block countries such as Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Armenia. Also represented were China, Nepal and other Asian nations, who are often left out of the international research loop.'
La Trobe's role in the Padua conference goes back five years when Dr McNamara was asked to become a foundation board member of a new organisation for advancing knowledge in residential care, foster care and their alternatives for children and youth with psycho-social problems – the International Association for Outcome Based Evaluation and Research in Family and Children's Services.
Sharing their research
Eight staff and postgraduate students from the School of Social Work and Social Policy gave papers at the conference.
PhD student Robyn Miller, Principal Practitioner, Child Protection and Family Services Branch in the Department of Human Services, made a keynote presentation outlining Victoria's success in arresting the growth in demand for child protection services.
Head of the School, Associate Professor Margarita Frederico, and her team, reported on the Victorian- Government-funded 'Take Two' therapeutic intervention program for children and young people under observation or care within the State's child protection system (see also 'Social maps strengthen support for abused children').
'Take Two' research manager, Annette Jackson, senior researcher Carlina Black, Aboriginal research officer, Jane Harrison and area manager, Trish McClusky, all presented findings related to the 'Take Two' program.
Dr Lloyd Owen presented his doctoral research on interventions with adolescents in the welfare system.