Developing a Trauma-Informed Therapeutic Service in the Australian Capital Territory for Children and Young People Affected by Abuse and Neglect

səhifə	2/9
tarix	27.06.2016
ölçüsü	0.69 Mb.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Background and Policy Context

In the 2013–14 budget, the ACT Government committed $3.05 million over four years to establish the Trauma Recovery Centre to support children recovering from abuse and neglect. The focus of the Trauma Recovery Centre is to provide high quality trauma-informed therapeutic services to children aged 0-12 who have experienced abuse and neglect and who are current clients of the statutory services. Work will be undertaken with children in the context of their care and support networks, utilising trauma and attachment informed interventions. The Trauma Recovery Centre will be situated within Early Intervention and Prevention Services in the Office for Children Youth and Family Support (OCYFS) in the Community Services Directorate.

The establishment of the Trauma Recovery Centre has occurred against a backdrop of growing recognition, both at an international and national level, that an integrated whole of government response is required to protect children and young people from abuse and neglect. The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children (Framework), endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments in 2009, provides the impetus for guiding service development in Australia, with three of the six outcomes reflecting the principles of the Trauma Recovery Centre:

Outcome 2: Children and families access adequate support to promote safety and intervene;
Outcome 4: Children who have been abused or neglected receive the support and care they need for their safety and wellbeing; and
Outcome 5: Indigenous children are supported and safe in their communities.

Along with the Framework, the national Closing the Gap strategy also aligns with the objectives of the Trauma Recovery Centre. Endorsed by the Federal Government in 2008, the Closing the Gap strategy aims to reduce Indigenous disadvantage with respect to life expectancy, child mortality, access to early childhood education, educational achievement and employment outcomes (Australian Indigenous Health Infonet, 2014). The establishment of the Trauma Recovery Centre supports the building blocks ‘Safe Communities’ and ‘Early Childhood’.

The Review of ACT Child Protection Services (Vardon Report) undertaken in 2004, identified a need for ‘a therapeutic counselling service for children and young people with moderate to severe emotional and behavioural problems’. The Vardon Report (2004) also recommended ‘that therapeutic services and placements for children and young people with high needs in the ACT be developed and piloted’ (Vardon, 2004:30). These recommendations were accepted by the ACT Government, and the Trauma Recovery Centre, with its key aim of providing therapeutic support to children and young people affected by trauma, directly responds to this identified need and service gap in the ACT.
The ACT Five Year Out of Home Care Strategy 2015–2020, will aim to ensure the adequate supply and quality of OoHC placements for children and young people in the care of the Director-General. The Trauma Recovery Centre will contribute to this aim by providing therapeutic services to assist with the reduction of complex behaviours and improve the skill of caregivers, leading to more stable placements.
Finally, the Human Services Blueprint provides another vehicle for guiding the development of the Trauma Recovery Centre. The Blueprint's vision is for a cohesive human services system in the ACT that is person-centred, strengths-based and simple. The move towards a cohesive model of service delivery and response is guided by five values and eight principles with the key aims of capacity development and integrated service delivery. The partnership approach promoted by the Trauma Recovery Centre is congruent with this shift towards an integrated approach to service delivery, offering intensive service provision for children and young people with the aim of intervening early in the life of the child and/or the problem.

Trauma Overview

“A trauma is a psychologically distressing event that is outside the range of normal childhood experience and involves a sense of intense fear, terror and helplessness” (Perry, 2002:23).

It is well documented in the literature that childhood trauma has a lasting impact on brain development and on the formation of a secure attachment between the child and their caregivers. The extent to which a child is affected by trauma is dependent on:

The age and developmental stage of the child;
The nature of the trauma i.e. whether it is a one-off event, a natural disaster or a persistent or evasive part of life; and
Whether there are protective and nurturing adults to support the child during and after the traumatic event (Women’s Health Goulburn North East, 2012).

Much of the literature pertaining to trauma makes a distinction between Type 1 and Type 2 Trauma. Type 1, also referred to as ‘Acute Trauma’ results from exposure to a single event or situation which is overwhelming for the child, such as a bushfire, car accident or death of a parent. The presence of caring and supportive adults before, during and after the traumatic event is integral to a child’s ability to make sense of such an experience (Women’s Health Goulburn North East, 2012) and with supportive relationships, it is likely that children will recover from the traumatic incident, develop coping strategies as well as a degree of resilience.

Conversely, Type 2 Trauma, commonly referred to as ‘Complex Trauma’ results from a child’s repeated and prolonged exposure to multiple traumatic events (Bath, 2008). According to van der Kolk (2005,) these traumatic experiences are most often interpersonal in nature and occur within the child’s care giving system and include physical, emotional and educational. Therefore, for children who experience persistent trauma and where adults are either the source of trauma (e.g. abusive parent) or who have a limited capacity to support the child (e.g. family violence, homelessness, parental mental health concerns), the greater the likelihood the trauma will have a lasting impact on the child’s social and emotional wellbeing and development.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9