Child Protection in Queensland Australia - Essay Example

? Child protection in Queensland Australia Introduction It is the responsibility of a nation and all regions county wide to protect the child. The main duty of Child protection in Queensland Australia is to ensure that the rights and interests of children and young people are protected and safeguarded. It is clear that children’s’ rights and interests are violated in many countries in the world (Barker & Hodes, 2007). Forced labor, sexual assault, body injury due to beating, early marriages among others are some of the child rights being abused. This call for the government to come up with laws and commissions that will oversee that child rights and interest are practiced. Some of the commissions assist in solving children and young people disputes that may arise in the society. Provision of care is given to vulnerable families and children facing child abuse (Barker & Hodes, 2007). Parents, families and the communities are educated on the rights of children and youth. The importance of bringing up children in a healthy family is emphasized, which leads to a healthy community. During the year 2010, a legislative Act was passed by the Queensland Parliament to enhance the ability of NGO’s services to negotiate with vulnerable people and families in advance. This is to ensure that such families and people get assistance and support from Department of Communities before they face a great problem. The 2010 Child Protection and Other Amendment Act have led to other schemes, which are offering help and support to the needy families. A good example is the Helping out Families initiative, which gets fund support from the government (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2012). PeakCare organization for Child Safety-Queensland The government has made a step further by ensuring that there is a conducive environment for these children. This is by ensuring that organizations, well wishers, employees and other parties are working hand in hand with organizations and communities dealing with child safety. These parties should make contributions, efforts and decisions on how child safety can be improved in the nation. Many companies and organizations have joined hands with the government in child protection (Korbin & Coulton, 1996). PeakCare is one of the organizations that show care and protection to the vulnerable families and children through donation of basic needs. This organization ensures that cases related to child abuse and neglect are reported and correct action taken in good time. This is one of corporate social responsibility companies practice and uphold. They provide moral and financial support to these people and in some cases; they may sponsor a few children with free education. Participating in training and campaigns of maintaining the best interest of child is another way of supporting Child Safety Queensland. Legal and practice guidelines The Australian government made it mandatory in Child Protection Australia 2011-12 to report any cases of child abuse and neglect. This ensures that all children are protected against abuse from parents and the community at large (Tilbury, et al., 2007). This legal requirement is called mandatory reporting. In addition, the government has come up with child protection legislation and policies that protect children. Laws relating to reporting of alleged child sexual violators have been developed in order to take a legal action on them. Heavy penalties and punishment to child sexual abusers will impose fear to people prospecting to commit such crime and this will reduction of such acts in the society (Cashmore, 1999). Issues and dilemma encountered Employees and community working with disability services are faced with many challenges from their customers in their work. Some of these challenges are ethical while others require guidelines in order to ensure that proper acts are practiced (Bowes & Hayes, 1999). Some of the challenges are; gifts and presents from clients as a way of appreciation, disclosure of crimes and offences a client has revealed to them, dealing with client’s requests of working out of official hours. In addition, other clients may fail to disclose their true salary which plays a big role in deciding whether a customer needs assistance or not. Another issue that brings predicaments is making a decision on how to go about a partner who misuses the organization’s money and resources. All these are some of the issues and problems faced by involved parties in maintaining the best interest of the child (Australian Association of Social Workers, 2010). In order to solve these problems, there is a need for the concerned organizations and agencies to come up with clear guidelines, principles and code of conducts. These guidelines should clearly outline the acceptable practices and standards to be practiced by service providers to their clients. All workers should be conversant with these guidelines and reminded day in day out as they carry out their duties to the best interest of the child. Additionally, there is need of reporting some issues to the concerned supervisors in order to discuss and come up with solutions. Evidence based strategies Efforts in preventing child exploitation have had no success in the past due to lack of giving collision factors on families and children together with the vulnerability for abuse. This has led to formation of strategies and approaches to preventing child abuse and neglect. These strategies will promote child protection now and in the future. The whole of community initiative, cross-sectoral collaboration and early intervention are some of the strategies developed to cater for this issue (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2013). Theoretical frameworks underpinning these strategies Ecology theory of human development- child abuse is a factor that is affected by many factors social, economical, political and environmental factors. In addition, drug abuse, family violence, loneliness, unemployment, poverty and mental problems can cause child maltreatment (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Therefore, a cross-sectoral approach is required to solve this problem. Risk and resiliency – the need to identify the main risk facing children and young people in their stages of growth and development is essential (Garmez, 1985.). These risks may be affecting family or the whole community leading to child abuse. After the risks are identified, protective measures to overcoming these risks should be put in place. The identified protective measures are attaining optimistic results, persistent ability to cope with stress and a recovery process (Lonne et al, 2008). A child belongs to the whole community and not the parents alone hence good care should be given to children. This means that everybody should take care of children regardless of background, tribe, religion or color. How these theoretical frameworks underpin these strategies. It is clear that children grow in an open environment that in one way or the other affects their development. The ecological theories of human development identify the complexity of nature and how it may influence child maltreatment. The environment, people interacting with, behaviors, beliefs and culture are some of the factors causing child abuse. Risk and resiliency will solve future problems that may face children and families vulnerable to abuse. This is because protective measures will be available and many risk factors will be under control. Hence, there will be reduction in child abuse in the country at large. It is not the role of the government alone to fight against child abuse in the society. This calls for the whole community- religious leaders, families, and government, health and learning institutions among other bodies to the fight. This is because everybody in the nation has a role to play in ensuring the well being of the children and the young people. By so doing, the issue of child abuse and maltreatment will come to an end in Australia and the world at large. Challenges faced when responding to indigenous issues. The rate of indigenous families and children is increasing at a high rate compared to non-indigenous families. This shows that there are a big number of indigenous children who are abused and their cases go unrepresented. Some of the problems reported in indigenous families are unemployment, use of drugs, sexual abuse, mental problems and alcoholism. There are challenges faced when dealing with indigenous issues like cultural demands from some family members. This is to ensure that cases of abuse and maltreatment go unreported to the respective bodies. Language barrier is another problem leading to increase of indigenous cases (Fegan & Bowes, 1999). Communication problem leads to misunderstanding between the information giver and the recipient. In addition, there are geographical barriers where parties involved are inaccessible due to poor infrastructure. Some of the victims fail to disclose child abusers due to fear of consequences that will befall them (Lievore, 2003.). All these among others are challenges that are encountered when dealing with indigenous cases in Australia. Family health strategy is one of the approaches that can solve these problems. Indigenous families should be trained on how to live healthy life which will improve self esteem (Dawe Harnett & Frye, 2008). This will help them break some of the beliefs they hold of being unacceptable and less important in the society. In addition, experts and professionals in health family issues should provide services to people especially the indigenous group. This will increase awareness of children’s rights and consequences of violation of such rights. Bibliography Australian Association of Social Workers., 2010. Code of Ethics. Canberra, A.C.T: Australian Association of Social Workers. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare., 2013, Child protection Australia 2011-12. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare., 2012. Child protection Australia 2010-11. Bruce: AIHW. Barker, J. & Hodes D, T., 2007. The Child In Mind: A Child Protection Handbook, 3rd Edition. London: Routledge. Bronfenbrenner, U., 1979. The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bowes, J.M. & Hayes, A., 1999. 'Contexts and consequences: impacts on children, families and communities. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Cashmore, J. 1999. Child Protection and substitute care: The Responsibility of Families, Community and State. Contexts and consequences. Melbourne: Oxford University Press Dawe, S., Harnett P. & Frye, S., 2008. Improving outcomes for children living in families with parental substance misuse: What do we know and what should we do? (Child Abuse Prevention Issues No. 29). Accessed on 23rd September, 2013. From www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/issues/issues29/issues29.html>. Fegan, M. & Bowes, J., 1999. 'Isolation in rural, remote, and urban communities', in J.M. Bowes & A. Hayes (eds), Children, Families, and Communities: Contexts and consequences, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne. Garmez, N., 1985. Stress-resistant children: the search for protective factors, in J.E. Stevenson (ed.), Recent Research in Developmental Psychology, Oxford: Pergamon Press. Korbin, J.E. & Coulton, C.J., 1996. 'The role of neighbors and the government in neighborhood- based child protection', Journal of Social Issues, 52: 25-34. Lievore, D., 2003. Non-reporting and hidden recording of sexual assault: An international review. Report prepared by the Australian Institute of Criminology for the Commonwealth Office of the Status of Women. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. Lonne, B.et al., 2008. Reforming Child Protection. Hoboken London, UK: Taylor & Francis. Tilbury, C. et al., 2007. Good practice in child protection. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W: Pearson Education Australia. Read More