Online gambling poses unique risks to young people in out-of-home care, as they face heightened vulnerability due to trauma, self-regulation challenges, and limited adult support. Despite recent reforms targeting gambling harm, current protections fail to meet the specific needs of this group. This blog highlights why targeted intervention is crucial to safeguard young people in care from the pervasive lure of online gambling.

In Australia, children and young people with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in out-of-home care are at critically greater risk of getting involved with the youth justice system. Over time, involvement in out-of-home care and youth justice can create a pattern of criminalisation, that spirals into a cycle of reoffending and deeper involvement with both systems. Breaking the cycle of FASD recriminalisation means providing early diagnosis, support and intervention.

Although kinship care now represents the majority of out-of-home care placements in Australia, comparatively little attention has been given to the risk factors and protective factors for grandparent carers experiencing secondary trauma. In this blog, researchers highlight the additional risk of secondary trauma to grandparent carers, due to the family crises that led to caring for their grandchildren, managing the conflicting roles of being the child's carer and the child's parent's parents, and the personal connectedness they feel to the specific traumas their grandchildren have experienced.

Last week, CETC facilitated an insightful panel about trauma-informed care and young people in youth detention. CETC welcomed Joanna O’Connor, Associate Professor Tim Moore and Murray Robinson to share their insights, reflections, experience and ideas with over 100 sector attendees.

Motivated by the frustrations of seeing Aboriginal children disconnected from their culture over seven years in the OOHC sector, Bradley Burns’ research focuses on elevating the voices of Aboriginal young people through a co-design approach. By integrating these voices into service delivery, he aims to create a more effective and culturally respectful OOHC system. His work critically examines existing practices, like Cultural Support Plans, emphasising the need for genuine collaboration and culturally grounded solutions.

Children and young people in out-of-home care often have limited experience of healthy and respectful relationships, which can make understanding affirmative consent and relationship boundaries challenging. This blog offers ten practical tips for talking about consent and sexual health in a trauma-informed way with children and young people in care.

The Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care (CETC) expresses deep concern over the Victorian Government’s reversal on raising the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility (MACR). This decision disregards the voices of human rights advocates, Aboriginal communities, and experts in law, medicine, and child development, as well as the UN's recommendation of a minimum age of 14.

With the exhaustion and overwhelm that comes with looking after trauma-impacted children and young people, self-care can often feel out of reach. In this blog, we look at five practical self-care strategies tailored to those feeling drained: prioritising sleep, focusing on what can be influenced, adopting resilience slogans, acknowledging that it's okay not to be okay, and identifying strategies that fit who we are. These suggestions emphasise the need to take small, manageable steps to care for ourselves, so that we are able to care for our children and young people.

At this week’s National Kinship, Permanent and Foster Care conference held in Melbourne, the experiences of pleasure and pain faced by kinship carers were clearly evident. Amidst the stories of love and pride, there were also accounts of deep frustration and distress.

The Australian Institute of Family Studies recently released a report titled Improving the Safety and Wellbeing of Vulnerable Children: A Consolidation of Systemic Recommendations and Evidence. This report summarises recommendations from 61 reports and inquiries between 2010 and 2022, highlighting consistent themes linked to the importance of holistic therapeutic care for children and young people.

Having meaningful conversations about consent can be tricky. Understanding consent is built on understanding relationships, safety, and social skills. For this reason, many young people in out-of-home care need regular broader discussions about healthy relationships and boundaries that evolve with the young person's development.

We are excited to announce Professor Lynne McPherson's appointment as Chair of Out-of-Home Care Research. This Chair role, the first of its kind in Australia, is a joint position to generate important research outcomes that inform the efforts of the Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care, leading the way in progressing knowledge about "what works" in out-of-home care.