The majority of time spent suring our second week in Melbourne was at regional agencies.  We were able to ask questions about the services they provided as well as any questions regarding the effectiveness of their services.  We can hopefully take our questions and answers and use what we learned to develop our services in America.

One of the most lasting impressions made at these agencies was the level of funding and support for the Australian child welfare system.  Every building we met in seemed to be well kept and modern, while often in America, the buildings many social work services are in poorly maintained and old buildings.  I think this can be attributed to the priority that Australians put on their child welfare system. They have a better understanding of the importance of child mental health and its impact on the entire population.

We learned that the foster care system has an emphasis on rebuilding families and keeping children connected to their roots.  Children in the foster care system rarely get adopted by an outside family, and is more of a last resort for these children.  While visiting the University of  Melbourne, we were able to learn how different types of bias can affect services provided for children.

Specifically, we analyzed a case and decided whether we thought the child in questiuon should stay with his foster family or enter a group home for further treatment.  Two groups received the same case, but in the first, the child’s name was Abasi and his foster family was low income, and in the second, the child’s name was Shawn, and his foster family had high income.  these two changes were done to show how easily bias can affect a social worker’s decision for further care based on race and income.

Another critical thing we leanred about in Melbourne was traum informed care and working with children from refugee backgrounds.  Like America, Australia has a large number of refugee and asylum seeking families and individuals entering the country.  We discuessed the multiple reasons that families need to leave their home lands and the emotional, social, and physical labor that families go through when fleeing.  Children in these families often feel more strain than their parents due to their start of development and need for stability in chikldhood.  Therefore, providing useful resources and coping strategies to this children is critical in order to make sure that they grow up healthy, both physically and mentally.

These trauma informed strategies for coping can be applied to many forms of trauma.  Trauma affects many individuals, yet is a very broad topic.  Each type of trauma is unique to the indidvual and their experience, and learning about broad coping mechanisms can help to be applied to each form.  The information we learned from these agencies is very applicable to many forms of social work, and can be adapted to work in America as well.

Mary Tillman and MK Crimmel