The use of a metaphorical approach in a time limited group for children whose parents are separating/divorcing is explored. Drawing, “naming the group”, and structured exercises are used metaphorically to help the children tell their own “story”, not their parents version. The metaphorical processing of the media is what counts not the media itself. Every way of using media tells a story and moves children from story telling to story experiencing. When children are able to share feelings, they have taken a step forward.

Although these well-known lines from George Crabbe's poem The Borough, refer to the practice of workhouses, in essence, selling children (a similar instance, may of course, be found in Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens), it is equally clear that the practice was not confined to the workhouse. Although the workhouse may have been the ultimate Victorian method of dealing with poverty and certain types of dysfunctional family (Henriques, 1979), there can equally be no doubt that the practice was not thereto restricted. It is the purpose of this article to consider, albeit briefly, the more obvious manifestations of children as property in Nineteenth Century social history and to inquire as to how far those attitudes are still pertinent to Anglo-Australian law.

As the deinstutionalization process sees more children with disabilities placed at home with their families, families are experiencing burdens and stress in their continuing care lifestyle.

This paper presents a generic model of family assessment derived from the structural approach to family therapy. It also draws upon the accumulated knowledge base concerning effects on family of a child with a disability which has developed over the past twenty years. Skill and knowledge are then combined in the presentation of a case example which demonstrates family assessment in a family with a child with a disability. The technique of family sculpting as it was used during the assessment is presented.

This paper supports the development and assertive provision of family work services to families who can be identified as potential high stress families simply by virtue of having a child with a disability at home.

When we discuss and think about responsibilities to intercountry adopted children, we have to answer several questions first:

I will answer the second and easiest question first.

How many intercountry adopted children arrive each year in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Great Britain, other European countries, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada?

Catholic Family Welfare Bureau Melbourne have for many years provided remedial family services, a core service being marriage and family counselling. Our range of service has expanded to also include educative programs.

One frequent request is for education for parents about adolescence and its' meaning in family life. Additionally, our Dandenong branch needed to respond to the many urgent requests they were receiving from parents for counselling, about “adolescence problems” encountered in their families.

As result a group of counsellors and social workers have produced a course in an endeavor to discover the most effective means to provide education for parents.

A visit to Malaysia is a delight for a comparative family lawyer, especially one who adores satay, nasi goreng and biryani.

The country itself is an unlikely amalgam of two land masses separated by 700 km, containing thirteen States of widely differing cultures. West Malaysia is by far the more populous, East Malaysia the larger geographically. In East Malaysia, a rich country (Brunei) is sandwiched as an independent enclave between the two States which do belong to Malaysia (Sarawak and Sabah). In the Malay Peninsula the port of Singapore, which geographically belongs to West Malaysia, ceded from the Federation in 1965, and is a separate country.

The assessment of the well-being of children in their family and wider social environments is the common brief of social workers and other family practitioners across a variety of agency settings. Whether the focus is child protection, family therapy, family assessment in family law matters or a combination of the above, the practitioner finds the necessity to derive an accurate and sensitive assessment of how a particular child is faring in his or her social environment.

The literature on the antecedents of drug abuse is reviewed and a number of general themes are extracted. Based on these themes, directions for primary prevention programs are identified.

What we are discussing is the notion of prevention as directed toward families. The idea is to prevent the break-up of families in our community which is costly both in economic and social terms … but, as I hope to demonstrate, there is more to it than that.

Let me also say that the notion of prevention, both in theoretical and conceptual terms as well as in applied, practical terms is nothing new, it has been around for a long time. At the turn of the last century it became a popular theme with the advocates for an expanded role for local government in the U.K.; the work of Sydney and Beatrice Webb, in particular, made a substantial and important contribution there.

The Family Court was introduced in Australia in 1976, almost by legislative legerdemain. There had been little debate about it beforehand. There was no Royal Commission, no Law Reform Report. There was little public agitation or debate about its merits. It was suddenly upon us, as part and parcel of the reform of the divorce laws.

How this differs from the position in other countries! In England, the Law Commission invited submissions on Family Courts as early as 1970. The Finer Committee in 1974 strongly recommended them! Numerous commentators since have advocated them in one form or another. The debate continues! But none has yet been set up! France and Germany have established tribunals loosely akin to our Family Court. But they are pallid imitations only. Other countries have tried some experiments. But I know of no country, save possibly Japan, that has established such a radical reform as Australia.

The idea of prevention in child welfare is not new. The prevention of substitute placement of children whether on a temporary or long-term basis has been a fundamental principle of child welfare we have held to for many years in Victoria.

However, it is only in the last decade that this principle is actually being carried out in practice by a number of voluntary agencies. For many children placement is still commonly used as a solution it is easier to place a child than to promote change within many multi-deficit families.

As adults, it is tempting to dismiss children's fears of such things as animals, the supernatural and physical events as vivid aspects of their imagination and to reassure ourselves that such fears are relatively minor or of limited concern. To this extent adults fail to realise children's fears reflect something of their understanding of the world and their place in it. To date, there has been very little research conducted in Australia on the nature and extent of children's fears. However, research conducted in the United States and Europe has identified a number of features of fears including sex differences and age trends.

Before discussing the types of services that are required I would like to look, just briefly, at some of the recent history in the provision of services.

Edith Bennett was the Director of the Family Welfare Division in what is now Community Services Victoria. Those of you who have been around for more than ten years will remember her. She once said that what we need is a range of flexible services. Being rather young and believing I knew it all I thought at the time that this was a load of simplistic rubbish. How could something so simple be true. The field likes to make these things complex. However, looking back I feel she had made a key point that is perfectly obvious now.

Single fathers (i.e. men rearing their children without support from a ‘live-in’ adult companion) have been termed an ‘unnoticed group’ in Australian society (Bain, 1973).

Apart from the author's own recently completed research (Wilson, 1988), only three previous Australian studies about single fathers have been undertaken. This evident lack of interest in single fathers needs to be understood within a broader context of traditional family research approaches, which denied the significance of the fathers' role in the socialisation and nurturance of children. Fathers have been termed the “forgotten contributors to child development’ (Lamb, 1975) since traditionally, social scientists have viewed fathers as aloof and distant from their own children, with little capacity to undertake core caretaking roles in families (Fein, 1978).

Statutory and coluntary community welfare agencies are increasingly unertaking ‘reviews’. However, there is limited understanding of the wider social policy events influencing the form and function of reviews. This article focusses on reviews in voluntary agencies and suggests reasons for the increase in level of review activity and provides practical guides on achieving a successful review process.