Foster Care

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (15:23): I would like to put on the record the personal story of a foster carer in South Australia, so I will be reading from her notes as follows:

Issues regarding the lack of services and support for my foster child who has high and complex needs.

1. When my foster child first began to abscond and associate with others whilst roaming the streets day and night, the response from agencies involved was that he was being irresponsible and making bad choices and he would either end up being hurt or being caught for offending. When I could no longer cope with these behaviours, my foster child was placed in a residential care facility and community care accommodation for 5 weeks after which he returned to my care in a very traumatised state. He had been physically hurt in at least one incident, was now using more dangerous drugs, and was in trouble for offending.

At the point when my foster child first began absconding putting himself at risk, a comprehensive risk assessment should have been done with the option of being placed in a therapeutic treatment facility with a plan in place to focus on placement stability and family therapy. My foster child was presenting with behavioural and emotional problems consistent with what might be expected with a diagnosis of having a Reactive Attachment Disorder, but there were no specialised and intensive treatment options for him.

2. My foster child continued to deteriorate in terms of his mental health problems, substance use issues and offending and was eventually placed in a correctional facility for six weeks to allow for a psychological and psychiatric assessment to be conducted. In this facility my foster child tried to self-harm and when he returned home he was once again even more disturbed, troubled and traumatised and was at high risk of harm and exploitation.

My foster child should not have been placed in a correctional facility to be assessed. He should have been placed in a therapeutic treatment facility and provided with therapeutic treatment which would also focus on supporting his placement in family based care.

3. After nearly two years of trying to support my foster child without the intense and specialised therapeutic treatment he needed, his placement with us broke down. He lived away from home for three months and during that time was homeless for one month, returning to my care once again when he had nowhere else to go and contacted me late at night in a very emotional and traumatised state asking to please come home. Since that time I have been asking for specialised family based therapy, as my foster child knows he is not ready for independent living and is very insightful and articulate about the problems he would experience in supported accommodation and an independent living situation, which is the current plan developed by Families SA and supported by the psychologist.

My foster child and I must receive the support, respect and services we need so that he can live with our family until he is stable and healthy enough to live independently. Common sense should indicate to all parties concerned that any 16-17 year old would struggle to live in supported accommodation or independently, let alone a young person who has serious behavioural and emotional problems, substance use issues, no continual mainstream high school education beyond year 8, and is easily influenced by undesirable people and groups in the community.

Final comment

It is my view that the current system is failing to meet the needs of severely traumatised children and young people in care, who have multiple and complex needs, because the specialised and intensive services they need have not been recognised, developed and implemented.

To fully address the situation the following actions need to be taken:

Professionalising the foster care program.

Developing and implementing national standards and training.

Having specialised family based therapy available for foster children/young people and their foster carers.

Providing children/young people with specialised, time limited and intensive therapeutic treatment facilities and therapeutic post care options, with the aim of supporting family based placements.

Providing children/young people with specialised educational day programs which are therapeutically based to assist them with behavioural and emotional problems.

I put that on the record on behalf of one of my foster parents and there are certainly many more stories similar to this and even more alarming that are going on in South Australia. Thank you.