Examination of telephone counselling records from a youth centre revealed that parents are particularly concerned about their children’s drug taking. Other frequent crisis situations such as overdoses, the type of drugs being used, and information on family and personal circumstances were assessed to provide a profile of those people seeking help. While the success of crisis counselling centres is difficult to evaluate, the community has an obvious need for such services.

This study investigates the knowledge and attitudes of health professionals towards the reporting of child abuse in Victoria. A review of the literature suggests that this professional group lacks adequate knowledge of child abuse reporting, legislation and procedures. It is also suggested that numerous factors other than ignorance of the law may influence professionals’ cooperation in reporting or trying to deal with a case of child abuse. Finally, it was found that the introduction of compulsory reporting in the State of Victoria would not markedly increase professionals’ willingness to report. Seventy-four health professionals were included in the sample for analysis, and the results indicate that negative attitudes to the law and the competence and resources of ancillary services is more of a problem than ignorance of the law.

As a practice method, permanency planning has been on the scene long enough to require re-evaluation of its underlying theory and implications for social work. The authors therefore offer a comprehensive definition of permanency planning and describe its major features in detail.

Concern about the phenomenon of drift in foster care has given rise to the practice called permanency planning — the process of taking prompt, decisive action to maintain children in their own homes or place them permanently with other families. This is an important movement in child welfare, and there is a continuing need to clarify its meaning so as to promote its development in theory and practice. Following a brief review of the literature, we therefore propose a comprehensive definition of permanency planning and delineate its major components.

The paper examines the impact that a decision making model can have on child placement decisions. Using a pre and post test design with three different conditions, the research investigated the ability to increase the consistency of the placement decision by the use of a decision making model that includes explicit criteria.

The study found that consistency of decision making was enhanced by the provision of the decision making model and that consistency could be further enhanced by the provision of training in the model. Implications for training of new workers and reduction of worker stress and burnout are discussed.

The incident of child abuse and neglect continues to rise. The National Centre on Child Abuse and Neglect estimates that approximately one million children will be abused or neglected this year in the United States. In the State of Illinois alone, during fiscal year 1981 nearly 80,000 reports of abuse or neglect were received. Almost 50% of those reports were found to be actual cases of abuse or neglect.

Whether the incident in Australia of child abuse and neglect is increasing or not is difficult to assess, since currently there is no standardised way of collecting data. However, from all indicators a similar increase is indeed occurring. Boss in his book, “On the Side of the Child”, reports that the number of cases seen by the Western Australian Department of Community Welfare has steadily increased. This is corroborated by statistics compiled by that State’s Advisory and Consultative Committee in Child Abuse (ACCCA). Their Statistical Information Report for July-December 1983 indicates an 86% increase in reports of sexual abuse and 12.5% increase in physical abuse. In Queensland the number of child abuse and/or neglect case investigations went from 1 095 in 1981 to 1 631 in 1982 – an increase of more than one third. In Tasmania between 1980 to 1982 the number of reports increased by nearly one-third, from 228-302. The Montrose Child Protection and Family Crisis Unit of the Department of Youth and Community Services in New South Wales report similar increases.

On almost a daily basis, social workers are called upon to make far reaching decisions that have the potential to be a life consequential both for the child who is the victim of abuse and/or neglect and that child’s family. Because these decisions, especially the placement decision, have such great ramifications, social workers should be expected to make decisions with great care, consideration and consistency. This may be due, in part because agencies have been slow to explicate, empirically validate, and systematically apply decision making criteria that assist workers in making case decisions.

While research indicates that criteria do exist and are used by child welfare workers, the research also indicates that they are not used in any systematic fashion. The result is that idiosyncratic decisions are invited and the potential spectre of gross inequities in the delivery of social services exists. Unless asystematic, consensually based decision making model is used that explicates both the decisions that need to be made along with a specific set of criteria for making these decisions, it is impossible for the child welfare agency to guarantee a minimum level of service delivery.

With permanency planning taking the spotlight increasingly in the field of foster care, i t becomes urgent to examine the definition of permanency, the effect on practice, and the implications for service delivery.

Many professional people working with families are frustrated by the fact that there is still a marked differentiation made between children of married parents and children of non-married parents in the courts. This division has persisted in spite of legislation to remove the status of illegitimacy and the reasons for this are far from obvious to those who are not lawyers. This paper traces the historical background of this split in jurisdiction between State and Federal Courts (i.e., the Family Court) and concludes that it is based on an anachronistic view of State’s rights which no social group or political party would support today.

Every child is entitled to share in, and be part of family life. Where the child’s natural family is unable to offer that family experience society is obligated to provide a substitute family. Family group home care should not be regarded as substitute family care. However, if agencies conducting family group home programmes are aware of the limitations of this model, the positive aspects of family group home care may be optimised.

In a series of two articles, the author presents a socio-environmental model which provides a framework for assessing the needs of abusing families. In the 2nd article (to be published in the Spring Issue) she looks at the application of the model in practice.

In the field of child welfare there is general agreement about the inadequacies and questionable effectiveness of the service delivery system. Study after study suggests that there is a wide gap between the promise of child welfare services and their performance. For instance, while the goal of a permanent home for each child has become accepted at the philosophical level, it is still far from being realized in practice, for many children are drifting in temporary, inappropriate placements.

Various solutions to these problems are usually offered, including more staff, more and better training, improved practice technology, and social action or social reform. While all these remedies are important, none would deal adequately with a recurring problem, namely, the failure of the service delivery system to promote the competence of clients and social workers in carrying out their roles and coping with life challenges. Much could be accomplished if we reconceptualized and changed practice so that it might be more conducive to the effective functioning of clients as well as social workers.

This paper describes a group support program for separated people. A simple self-report anonymous questionnaire was the only evaluative device used: the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The present program raised a number of issues, in particular – who are the most appropriate personnel to deliver the service; whether volunteer or professional. It is also noted that various researchers view social support as a critical variable for the eventual adjustment of the individual. Given the high number of those affected by separation and divorce, inclusion of such services would seem important as part of any preventive community program.

Joy Rainey is a Social Worker and Clinical Psychologist. Until recently, she was Senior Social Worker at Southern Family Life.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of treatment for encopresis, within a behaviourist framework. Whilst behaviourists’ methods demonstrate merit, many studies omit long term follow-up, and there is a tendency to view the child in isolation from his family. Behaviourist programs can be enhanced by viewing the child in the context of his family which the author sees as crucial when planning an appropriate and effective treatment regime.

This paper focuses on accidental incidents where there is no intention to misbehave/disobey. The children respond to projective material depicting children having accidents with no malice or forethought. The children’s reactions are discussed in light of their developmental stages as outlined by Piaget and Inhelder (1968) and Kohlberg (1976). The acts depicted are accidental, and should not provoke punishment. The results indicating punishment will be carefully scrutinised; in view of the linkage that exists between child abuse acts; the lack of differentiation that exists between types of misbehaviour that are unlikely to convey the fundamentals, which are a prerequisite for the development of moral judgement.

The State Government announced the appointment of a Committee of Review of Early Childhood Services in October 1982. The Committee was accorded broad terms of reference and requested to report to the Ministers of Health, Education and Community Welfare Services in nine months time. A total of seventeen members were appointed, indicating some degree of the complexity of this task, as a committee of seventeen would generally be regarded to be marginally workable. The Committee worked hard during the ensuing ten months and finalised its recommendations and completed its report in September 1983. Disagreements throughout the process of the Committee’s work finally reflected themselves in the decision of six members to withdraw their support and endorsement of the final report. A few weeks later a minority report was produced and the Government agreed to formally print the minority report and contribute to its overall distribution.

The phenomenon of child abuse was unexplored in Greece until the late 1970’s when the legal, social and medical professions became aware of the growing problem which resulted in the passing of a new law. Studies on child abuse are almost non-existent at present. Maroulis claimed that corporal punishment in the Greek culture can be perceived as an acceptable way of shaping a child’s behaviour. As yet there is very little, if any, research undertaken in Australia on Greek people and their awareness to child abuse. Masselos’s 1981 account of the Greek Community in Brisbane cites only three cases of child abuse as having occurred. This account cannot be viewed as indicating a low prevalence. Education is regarded as one of the essential factors in making people aware of the problem of child abuse and teaching them what the needs and the requirements of children are. Two of the three authors of the present study are from the Greek community, and were most concerned to ascertain the sensitivity to child abuse in the largest ethnic community in Melbourne. This study was undertaken in the year of the campaign “When Love is Not Enough” was launched, 1982. In this study 240 subjects, 40 Greek second year university students and their parents and 40 Greek early school leavers and their parents were given a questionnaire to fill out. The questionnaire contained questions of awareness, attitudes and opinions to child abuse. The aim was to see whether these selected samples of Greek people in Victoria were aware of the problem of child abuse.

This article, the second in a series of two, builds on the practice implications of the socio-environmental model of child abuse. The identification in this model, of necessary and sufficient conditions for occurrence of child abuse, leads to the conclusion that effective prevention and management can only be brought about by approaches which create nurturing conditions for all families. Helping programs must be intimately involved in the community of the families they serve – not only by integrating formal and informal networks, but also by promoting community involvement in the definition of community standards of adequate parenting, and in long term support of vulnerable families.

The present articles present some ideas as to how this can be achieved. Social support network theory gives some suggestions of the potential of social supports to provide a variety of resources and to counteract the social supports to provide a variety of resources and to counteract the social isolation identified by the socio-environmental model as an important necessary condition of child abuse. The article concludes by looking briefly at some practice approaches which attempt to maximize the availability and effectiveness of social support.