PeakCare eNews 10th September 2018

- Monday, 10th September 2018 -

Listening to children and young people was the key focus of messaging this Child Protection Week 2018 both across Queensland and nationally. While last week's eNews took the opportunity to congratulate the 2018 Queensland Child Protection Week Award recipients, this week's special edition takes the opportunity to focus on the achievements of the 2018 Child Protection Week campaign. Read more.

QATSICPP’s Inaugural Awards

In a year of firsts, the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak (QATSICPP) held the Inaugural Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Child Protection Awards on Thursday, 6th September at Rydges, South Bank. Listening was central to their messaging also. Listening to communities, children, young people and families who are the experts in their own lives. As the outstanding work of the past 12 months was showcased, it was evident that dividends have been paid in the overwhelmingly positive outcomes of legislative, policy and program innovation aimed at ensuring that community-controlled intervention is front and centre in Queensland. In such a short period of time, significant outcomes of children and families remaining together in culture whilst attaining wellbeing are already being noted. Read more.

Remembering Forgotten Australians

Another highlight of Queensland Child Protection Week was the Remembrance Day ceremonies held throughout the state. On Friday, in Brisbane, at the Gallery of Modern Art Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk, Minister Di Farmer, former governor Leneen Forde and many other dignitaries came together with members of the Historical Abuse Network to remember all those who have suffered harms at the hands of those who were meant to care for them in institutions. Read more.

Arts in Focus

QCPW 2018 boasted excellent arts events throughout the state with the Hands-on Arts lantern project now a state-wide initiative reaching thousands of Queenslanders through sharing the messages of thousands of children and young people who made lanterns to shine a light on children across Queensland. In 2018 the Hands-on Art lantern project Shine a light for children grew extraordinarily from its beginning in 2017 as a local initiative based in Paddington, Brisbane. Read more.

QCPW Events

Approximately 120 events took place from the far north of the state to the southern regions. Most events each attracting hundreds of community members who come together to hear about the importance of protecting children and young people and supporting families. Read more.

QCPW Dinner

MC Kay McGrath opened the evening and welcomed the 420 dignitaries and guests to Royal on the Park. She noted that the events and headlines of the week had a sobering effect on everyone in the room. "Many of us have children and these stories impact. For some the work is a living for others It’s a calling. We need to improve systems and learn from past events. We also need to acknowledge all those who work tirelessly to protect children. This is a night to catch up with colleagues and celebrate the positive stories." Read more.

2018 Leneen Forde Public Address
Brisbane - Tuesday, 11th September
Presented by CPPAQ

The Child Protection Practitioners Association of Queensland (CPPAQ) aims to improve interdisciplinary professional collaboration in the child protection system in Queensland. This year's Leneen Forde Public Address will be delivered by Dr Scott Harden, who will discuss his experience as a child psychiatrist in the courts - musings upon the protection of children and their interests. Dr Harden is a child, adolescent and adult clinical and forensic psychiatrist. In his clinical practice he has particular interest and experience in evaluation of anxiety disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in young people and adults. In his forensic practice, he has experience in a range of legal and treatment settings with young people and adults. CPPAQ Members are reminded this is a free event, for non-members the price is $40. Find out more and register.

AASW/PeakCare Practice Group Meeting
Brisbane - Thursday, 13th September

This practice group meeting will be a reflection on the Strengthening Families Protecting Children Framework for Practice. There will be an opportunity to explore the recent legislated amendments and practices for the safe care and connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families. Presenters are Candice Butler, Practice Lead, Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak (QATSICPP) and Meegan Crawford, Practice Connect, DCSYW. Find out more.

Come have a cuppa...Morning Tea for parents
Brisbane - Monday, 17th September
Presented by Family Inclusion Network

The Family Inclusion Network's Morning Tea for Parents is an opportunity for parents who have/had children in care, have/had intervention with parental agreement, or have been reunified with their children, to share their experiences with others, discuss how they navigated the child protection and out-of-home care systems, and offer support to other parents. The Morning Tea is held once a month on Monday from 9.30am to 11am at Wellspring Coorparoo, 143 Cavendish Road. For enquiries, contact Rebecca by email or phone on 3013 6030.

Lunchbox session: Trauma-informed practice
Webinar - Friday, 21st September
Presented by Australian Association of Social Workers

In this session Sam Whybrow will examine trauma informed practice, what it is and what importance it has to social work practice. Sam is a Social Worker working as the Clinical Services Manager of the Poppy Centre which is a new paediatric mental health service in Ipswich. Sam’s work experience over the past 10 years has included social work roles within Education Queensland, Queensland Health, Edmund Rice Flexible Learning Network as well as other non-government organisations. Find out more and register.

Digging Deeper: risk assessment and strengths-based family work
Brisbane - Thursday, 11th October
Presented by Encompass Family and Community

Is risk assessment still relevant in child protection when you work from a strengths-based framework with families? Of course! Assessing risk remains at the core of protecting children and young people. Yet what some find tricky is how to integrate the risk assessment process with a strengths-oriented approach to practice. This workshop ‘digs deeper’ into this question, reviewing contemporary understandings of the concepts and skills critical to risk assessment and exploring how to successfully enact these in practice while working to engage with families around the safety of their children. The complexities of this work are enormous, as is the responsibility to ‘get it right’. This workshop provides the opportunity to explore your understanding and approach to risk assessment and where it fits with frameworks for inclusive engagement and work with families. Find out more and register.

Inside Out: Understanding and supporting carer-child relationships in out-of-home care
Brisbane - Wednesday, 31st October
Presented by Compass Seminars

Some children who need love the most, ask for it in the most unloving ways. This can be particularly true for children in out-of-home care whose complex histories of abuse, neglect and disrupted attachment, often cause them to reject adults who are trying to care and support for them. Making sense of the processes behind their often difficult behaviour can assist professionals and carers to facilitate change and healing. This workshop introduces the Relational Learning Framework (RLF), a case conceptualisation tool which helps out-of-home care practitioners, mental health professionals and foster carers to examine what foster children have learned in their early life about relationships, particularly through abuse and neglect. Grounded in attachment theory and drawing on cognitive theory this workshop helps practitioners to understand and respond to the challenging behaviour presented by these children and remove barriers to an empathic response. Find out more and register.

123 Magic and Emotion Coaching
Brisbane - Thursday, 8th November
Presented by Parentshop

A comprehensive one-day training course that provides skills to teach parents and carers of 2-12 year-olds skills to manage their children’s difficult behaviour. It is based on two underlying perspectives on parenting: first, that children can be taught to respond more flexibly when they are frustrated or upset and second, that parents and carers can be taught easy-to-use skills they can use at particular parenting moments. Training includes role play, group discussion, worksheets and videos. This one-day course equips professionals with the knowledge to teach parents the program over three sessions and/or how to teach the tenets of the program in a few one-to-one clinical sessions. Find out more and register.

Human Rights in Queensland: it's time for answers
Brisbane - Wednesday, 19th September

Human Rights Act for Queensland and QUT Law will be hosting a free community discussion about what the introduction of a Human Rights Act in Queensland could mean, presenting a range of perspectives and opinions. The keynote address will be delivered by Professor George Williams AO, Dean and Anthony Mason Professor of Law at the University of NSW, who will join a panel of experts on the topic. PeakCare encourages all eNews readers to participate in this important conversation. Though free, registration is essential as space is limited.

The Sanctuary Model in Context
Brisbane - Monday, 15th to Tuesday, 16th October

The Sanctuary Institute Australia and MacKillop Family Services are inviting community services organisations and schools to attend a two-day seminar to support cultures of safety, wellbeing and learning in organisations. Participants will learn about The Sanctuary Model, a trauma-informed, whole of organisation change model that responds to the impact of chronic stress and adversity. Educators should note this program meets the requirements for provisional or full teacher registration for 14 hours of Professional Learning in every Australian state. Teachers will be able to demonstrate increased knowledge and proficiency on Standard 1 and 4 of Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL). View the flyer for more details or register here.

10th Australian Rural & Remote Mental Health Symposium
Hobart - Tuesday, 16th to Wednesday, 17th October

The 10th Australian Rural & Remote Mental Health Symposium is an opportunity for policy makers, clinical practitioners, academics, service providers and mental health professionals to join together and provide a collaborative platform for the challenges, solutions, innovations, support systems and networks for rural mental health. Find out more and register.

2018 ACOSS National Conference
Sydney - Monday, 29th and Tuesday, 30th October

The ACOSS National Conference has been a key event for civil society in Australia for over six decades. Each year hundreds of thought leaders, policy makers, political leaders, social innovators, practitioners, academics, campaigners, community leaders and social justice advocates come together to engage in collective public policy analysis, discussion and debate; identifying challenges and strategising solutions with the view to address poverty and inequality and enhance social cohesion in Australia. At this year's conference dinner ACOSS and HESTA will be co-presenting the Community Sector Awards. Early bird tickets are now available - don't miss out!

2018 Youth Health Conference
Gold Coast - Wednesday, 7th to Friday, 9th November

The Australian Association for Adolescent Health and the Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Association have partnered to host the 2018 Youth Health Conference. This year’s conference theme, “Owning Future Change”, invites young people, clinicians, researchers, educators and policy makers to act now to identify challenges and implement solutions to create real change in the lives and health of young Australians. The 2018 Youth Health Conference is the platform where the latest research findings will be presented with policy and practice recommendations, and where innovative models of care will be showcased. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth Health and Sexuality Education and Sexual Health are major themes in this year’s conference. Find out more and register.

Sexuality and people with an intellectual disability: a sex positive approach
Brisbane - Tuesday, 13th November

This workshop to be delivered by Lud Allen Counselling will explore the meanings that you give to sexuality and specifically the meaning you give to sexual education for people with an intellectual disability. You will identify barriers that exist to supporting clients in meeting their sexual health and relationship education needs. You will use and critique resources specifically made for sexual health education of people with an intellectual disability and explore the benefits of 1:1 education vs small group education and hear how this has been applied successfully in real life scenarios. Find out more and register.

Sisters Inside Inc. 9th International Conference
Brisbane - Wednesday, 14th November to Friday, 16th November

Sisters Inside Inc.'s 9th International Conference Imagining Abolition…A world without prisons has been announced. The Conference is currently accepting abstract submissions on the conference theme and related issues, including: failure of prison reform; over-imprisonment of First Nations people; systemic racism and sexism; state violence and deaths in custody; the prison-industrial complex; the welfare-industrial complex; alternatives to prison; decarceration strategies; and local and global innovations for presentations 10-15 minutes long. Submit an abstract, register to attend the Conference, or sign up to stay notified of Conference details.

FRSA 2018 National Conference
Cairns - Tuesday, 20th to Friday, 23rd November

The Family and Relationship Services Australia (FRSA) National Conference is one of the largest annual gatherings of practitioners, academics and policy makers working to support children, families and communities. The Conference will be held at the Pullman Cairns International Hotel with the theme Be the change: Leaving no one behind. The Conference program is now available, with 93 half-hour sessions and panel discussions, alongside keynote speakers including Dr Jackie Huggins, Co-Chair, National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, Dr Howard Bath on "The Place of the Trauma Framework in Child and Family Services", Dr Stephen Crossley, Senior Lecturer, Northumbria University on "Lessons to be learnt from the Troubled Families Programme", Professor Helen Rhoades, Australian Law Reform Commission, and Judge Joe Harman, Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

Healing Our Spirit Worldwide: The Eighth Gathering
Sydney - Monday, 26th to Thursday, 29th November

The International Indigenous Council for Healing Our Spirit Worldwide has invited The Healing Foundation and The University of Sydney to join together to celebrate the strengths of Indigenous peoples across the world. Healing Our Spirit Worldwide – The Eighth Gathering will share the experiences, resilience and challenges confronting Indigenous peoples across the world.

STOP Domestic Violence Conference
Gold Coast - Monday, 3rd December to Wednesday, 5th December

Domestic violence can affect anyone in the community, regardless of gender, sexual identity, race, age, culture, ethnicity, religion, disability, economic status or location. Over the course of three days, the 2018 STOP Domestic Violence Conference will highlight, acknowledge and reflect on the efforts of those who have contributed and set the bar for change. The Conference aims to facilitate policy change, raise awareness and work together to eliminate violence within Australia.

Visit the Events page on our website for other opportunities in the sector. You can also email your professional development opportunities so that we may promote them through future editions of eNews.

Practice Supervisor - Bravehearts

Bravehearts is seeking a part-time Practice Supervisor working in the South East region. The role will report to the National Therapeutic Services Manager, and provides supervision, debriefing, self-care and professional development of the team across the three locations, Arundel, Springwood and Strathpine. The role is classified under SCHC&DS Industry Award Level 7. Find out more and apply.

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