Thursday, 9 March 2023

Ministers statements: family services

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers, Minister for Child Protection and Family Services) (12:15): I rise to update the house on what this government’s $387 million investment in family services means for vulnerable families across our state. Family services provide vital interventions and supports and improve parenting capacity, child safety and family functioning. Every day across the state expert family service practitioners are working sensitively and purposefully with vulnerable families to provide the knowledge, skills and resources to get them back on their feet and stay on their feet.

The case of Sean and James illustrates this well. As always, I have changed the names to protect anonymity. Sean is a single father to 12-year-old James. James experienced neglect while in the care of his mother as a younger child and has lived with his father for four years. Child protection referred Sean and James to family services as they were concerned about James’s limited engagement with school, his increase in anxiety and his escalating behaviour.

Family service practitioners worked with Sean and James to undertake safety and care planning, strengthening their attachment and helping Sean to understand the impact of trauma on his son’s brain. Sean was supported to use trauma-informed activities and strategies to help James. In addition, the family services practitioner integrated regular meetings between the school and James’s psychologist and paediatrician; training for James’s school on PTSD and its impacts on young people; planning for James’s re-engagement with education; a discussion with his paediatrician around medication and an NDIS application; and the purchase of a swimming membership for James and Sean to promote connection, activity and recovery.

So what has been the result for James? Sean reports that James is now experiencing less anxiety and has been able to follow the care team’s plan. His medication has enabled him to manage his stress, anxiety and panic attacks, and he has followed the stepped plan to return to school. He has made strides in his recovery thanks to the supports put in place by family services practitioners.

In 2021–22 more than 12,500 families across Victoria accessed family services. We must always remember that behind each of these cases is a story of hardship and often trauma. It is why we are investing $387 million in family services, and that is why we, unlike those opposite, dedicate a cabinet portfolio to family services. It is for children like James.