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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4704 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

Mrs Littlewood made some additional comments which I will briefly address. Firstly, she asserted that because not all the facts are at hand our report should be seen only as a priority-setting document. The committee did state clearly that most of the report's recommendations relating to coordination of services and so on were made in response to crisis situations. Mrs Littlewood does not seem to understand that we cannot continue to put off the serious issues raised in this report. Her comment on the validity of the Australian Education Union's evidence is bizarre and insulting to the consultant employed to take on this work.

I would like to explain to members the quote that Mrs Littlewood finds so offensive. Talking about coordination of services, the consultant said:

I -

that initial is used so as not to identify the person -

is a 15-year-old male student whose case involves long-term intervention from Family Services and other sources such as social workers, counsellors, Department of Education, Housing and private and public help services over a number of years. Very little has been coordinated and most actions have been reactive, predicated almost entirely on I's behavioural disturbances at school, with first reports beginning at preschool.

I and his mother are both angry and traumatised by the humiliation and stress, culminating with I being taken away from his mother and placed in foster care for a time.

The family was referred to Richmond Fellowship, which took a coordinated approach. They listened to the mother and son, visited and talked with the school, followed through with a medical assessment of the boy, provided help to the mother, with counselling in the home and liaison with the school on a very regular basis with case meetings and phone calls if something untoward or unusual was happening.

The results have been extremely effective. Although I is not fully stabilised he is manageable at home and at school and the Richmond Fellowship is providing genuine help and advocacy.

That quote simply shows the importance of case management and the fact that it had not occurred early in this particular young person's problems. (Extension of time granted) Mrs Littlewood objects because she says that it is not tested. It shows that Mrs Littlewood is ignorant of the need to guarantee the privacy of people who participate in such services. Otherwise, she is questioning the validity of the findings of the consultant who was employed to take on this work. If Mrs Littlewood wants to question the methodology or the integrity of the consultant, then I think that is a very serious affair.

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