Sense of belonging to a community offers protection against depression (Glover et al. 1998); however, rural adolescents with mental health issues often feel isolated, lonely and socially excluded (Aisbett et al. 2007). This is exacerbated by the stoic attitudes and fear of social stigma which prevent many rural adolescents from engaging with mainstream mental health programs (Boyd et al. 2006). With this knowledge, we aimed to engage atrisk rural adolescent males who would otherwise not seek psychological help in an innovative program which would link them to a broader sporting community. The project also aimed to strengthen leaders of this community to act as mentors for these young people. In this article, we describe the development and delivery of the mentoring component of this innovative program. The outcomes for the youth involved in this program are described in the subsequent article by Kemp and colleagues in the next edition of Children Australia.

Drug use has a significant negative impact on the ability of parents to provide safe care for children and an outcome of this is the entry of some of these children into out-of-home care. This poses particular challenges for service providers, not only because of the complex nature of addiction, but also the many other issues facing these families. This paper reports on studies conducted by the Western Australian Department for Community Development in 2004 and 2007 which explored parental drug and alcohol use as a contributing factor in applications to the Children's Court for protection orders. The results of the 2004 study showed that parental drug and alcohol use was the second most common contributing factor in protection applications after neglect. It was also confirmed that drug and alcohol use rarely occurs in isolation, with strong links identified to neglect and domestic violence, as well as other factors, including physical abuse and homelessness/transient lifestyle. The 2007 follow-up study further highlighted the co-existence of parental drug and alcohol use and domestic violence.

The Wood Report is the product of a Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW that was set up in June 2006 and reported in November 2008. In March 2009, the NSW Government published a response to the report, ‘Keep them safe: A shared approach to child wellbeing’. The NSW Parliament in April 2009 also passed the Children Legislation Amendment (Wood Inquiry Recommendations) Act 2009 with little debate. This legislation has introduced many of Justice Wood's recommendations and has enacted other changes that were not included in the Commission of Inquiry report. While many of the amendments are welcome, there is cause for concern about the likely consequences of some of the new provisions.

Australian residential care programs are being increasingly challenged to respond to the therapeutic needs of the young people they service. Staff-client relationships have been identified as an important factor mediating program outcomes. Owing to the paucity of guiding literature, this study sought to understand young men's perceptions of the nature, role and qualities of their relationships with youth workers. In-depth interviews were conducted with 9 young men, who averaged 15 years 9 months of age, residing in the South Australian residential care system. The collation and analysis of data was guided by grounded theory. The young men constructed their relationships with youth workers in globally positive descriptors, although the global properties of this theme are qualified on a number of levels. Distinct staff and client roles, respectively corresponding to ‘provider’ and ‘consumer’, were identified. A number of qualities associated with positive staff-client relationships were identified, with attachment theory guiding the interpretation of themes. Program, policy and research implications of the research are discussed.