In a natural disaster situation the predominent experience is confusion. It occurs because disastrous events, by their very nature, disrupt the expected familiar pattern of life. The physical environment is usually drastically altered; sometimes it is almost unrecognizable. Death, injury or the threat of them, introduce new and powerful experiences of danger. Evacuation and the influx of combatant and relief workers, replace ordered and familiar community life with a disoriented, emotional mass of people.

In this, as in any situation of confusion, people fall back on what is familiar, to orient themselves. This means they may not immediately recognise what is new and unique to the disaster. They tend to focus on definite, tangible problems. The ovewhelming physical needs are quite rightly the first to be addressed. Many physical requirements have to be met in a matter of hours. When concentrating on providing necessary services, it is difficult to be understanding of the new personal and community responses that take place.

The recent decision of the English judicial hierarchy in Re B (a minor) (wardship: sterilisation) raises many of the issues which are involved with the difficulties inherent in attempts compulsorily to sterilise apparently incapable minors. The article contrasts the decision in Re B with the earlier English decision of Re D and the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Re Eve. It continues by discussing the policy issues which are raised by the case and by the literature.

Intercountry adoption (ICA) is a relatively new phenomenon in Australia and it is only since the plight of abandoned children was brought to world awareness at the end of the Vietnam War that it has become an accepted means of eradicating or extending a family. However, the major impetus for this situation has been the rapid decrease in the availability of local infants for adoption and this appears to be an outcome of the greater social acceptability of single parenting and the introduction of the supporting parent benefit which has provided single women with the financial means to keep their babies rather than give them up for adoption. While the numbers of children available for adoption have decreased the demand for them has not and so one is faced with a problem of supply and demand which has lead many persons who would otherwise have not done to consider ICA. It is of course recognised that not all adoptive parents of overseas children come into this category, although increasingly this is becoming the case. If one Is honest then it is suggested that ICA is rarely a first choice as a way of creating a family, indeed, one might say that it is a third choice for those whose age precludes them from adopting an infant. Objectively then, the risk of adoption failure leading to breakdown is a real possibility and one that needs to be thought about and prepared for before the number of ICA accelerate and the probability of breakdown increases.

The fires of Ash Wednesday, 1983 have been a significant turning-point in the history of disaster management concepts and practices in Australia. Disaster recovery management has been identified as an important area of management in its own right, containing complex and prolonged programs and activities and requiring the participation of the affected community and involvement from the wide community.

Recovery from disaster is no longer seen merely in terms of response and relief activities, or as a physical process of reconstruction. It is an enabling and supportive process, which allows individuals, families and communities to attain a proper level of functioning through the provision of information, resources and specialist services.

Child abuse and neglect can be thought of as violations of children's rights. Declarations of children's rights have been formulated by adults; they are intended to be internationally valid, but little attempt has been made to find out what children themselves think about their rights, in any country.

This study compared the views of Malaysian children and young adults with those of Australians. In both countries the right to love, affection and understanding ranked highly. Few children ranked highly their rights to freedom from fear of harm, or to protection; young adults ranked them more highly than the children. Most young people perceived schools as holding views very different from their own on children's rights. If schools are to perform a useful function in preventing abuse and neglect, children's views of schools may need to change, perhaps through changes in the schools.

A broader range of health and welfare workers are now expected to appear in court in child abuse and neglect cases. This article examines some of the reasons for tensions between lawyers and welfare workers. The paper is written to assist workers in preparing for court, and includes guidance on writing reports and dealing with cross-examination.

Rosemount is a centre which conducts a voluntary day attendance programme for unemployed 14½-17 year old adolescents.

The programme includes small group work, workshops and counselling. The special feature of Rosemount as an agency is its three-tiered approach to working with adolescents: the individual, the family and the peer group.

Understanding of what constitutes a disaster has altered over time in accordance with changing notions of cause and effects. The “Black Death” which swept Europe was then regarded as inevitable, with some religious groups descibing it as “An Act of God”. Perception of disaster has moved from an emphasis on the physical effects of an event, such as cyclone, fire or chemical explosion, to a perception that the extent of deleterious effects is predominately a social issue.

“Sociologically, a disaster is an event, located in time and space, that produces conditions whereby the continuity of the structure and processes of social units becomes problematic. Disaster agents may differ as to their cause, frequency, controllability, speed and onset, length of forewarning, duration, scope of impact and destructive potential” (Dynes, 1975).

No-one is a greater admirer of the tennis ability of Pat Cash that I. He virtually won the Davis Cup off his own racquet. And he and Stephan Edberg provided me and the other spectators at Kooyong with a marvellous final in the Australian Open.

It is, however, with some concern that I have seen pictures of him, his girl-friend and his son, glamourising him as a father. For the fact is, his son can potentially still suffer discrimination being born outside marriage.

As a successful sportsman, his Influence on young people is potentially enormous. If his example gives respectability to the production of children outside marriage, it will be doing great harm. For the fact is that children born outside marriage still suffer considerable legal and social disadvantages, compared to those born within marriage. They are innocent, but they suffer. And, I regret to say, although some of the discrimination can be, and should be, removed, it is unrealistic to expect that they can be placed on an equal standing with children born in marriage.

In this paper I intend to examine ways in which the problem of child poverty might be remedied by legislative reform. The legislative activity taking place at present means that this is a matter of current, as well as social, importance (1). The paper is not intended as an arid academic exercise, but as a contribution to the debate about the future direction of reform in this area. The emphasis of the paper is on the effect of legislative provisions outside the court-room. When more than 90% of divorce disputes are not resolved by judicial adjudication, it is vital to an understanding of the law to examine its out-of-court operation (2). This demands that we consider how the provisions of the Family Law Act are used in negotiations, and the effect of the relationship between parents' rights against each other, and parents' rights against the State. But therefore considering ways in which the interests of children might be protected on divorce, it is necessary to give a brief introduction to the nature of the problem of child poverty and its relationship with matrimonial breakdown.

This paper centre around a particular treatment procedure for a 6 years old boy with primary enuresis. According to Hudson (1980) the term “enuresi” mean “persistent wetting of the bed by children over the age of 3 or 4 years in the absence of any demonstrable organic pathology”. (P. 70).

Although there have been various ways of handling this over the centuries (mostly unsuccessful), according to many modern researchers, the bell and pad or enuresis alarm has the best record of success. Hudson claims “a continually demonstrated high success rate of approximately 75%” (p.18). He does emphasize, however, that these figures are for good quality equipment, used with professional supervision.

The disruption of disasters and the protracted recovery period following, can cause a variety of problems in the longer term. The authors identify a number of problems from clinical work with bushfire-affected families, including deterioration in the general fabric of family life, disruption of children's developmental pathways, reactivation of past traumatic experiences, and changes in self-concept and identity. The community context of assistance is emphasised.

The effects of professional intervention in family life and relationships has been questioned by a number of writers who maintain that this involvement has led to the undermining of parental authority and a lessening of parental competence and confidence. By contrast, others see this involvement as supplying necessary skills to family members.

Amongst the programmes which professionals have implemented are parent education programmes, many of which are conducted in groups and which are valued by both practitioners and writers. As part of the broader debate about the relationships between professionals and the family however, some critics suggest that parent education programmes can have adverse effects on parents' confidence in their parental role and on their self-reliance in deciding how best to raise their children.

A research project is being put into effect in Melbourne to explore these issues.

In 1972, Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger, a renowned American social scientist produced his classic work The principle of normalisation in human services. The principle has become a cornerstone of Government funded services to intellectually disabled children in Victoria. This article presents developments in Wolfensberger's most recent thoughts on normalisation.