Page 1730 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 9 May 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
intake service and provides drop-in clinics, which provides a pathway for parents and other referrers to seek advice and to find out if further services are necessary and where these services are available. Community paediatric services are based at the child development service in Holder.
For children and adults living with FASD, diagnostic and support services are important. As others have noted, a diagnosis of FASD is complex, determined through a multidisciplinary team involving a range of health professionals, including paediatricians, clinical psychologists and neuropsychologists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and social workers.
Mrs Kikkert has today raised a motion asking the government to assess all young people entering youth detention in the ACT for FASD. I think it is important, in this context, to clearly state that FASD does not cause offending behaviour. However, we know that young people with FASD have specific impairments that may cause them to be at increased risk of offending behaviour, such as poor judgement, impulsiveness or the inability to predict or understand the consequences of their actions.
Young people in contact with the youth justice system are also impacted by a range of family, personal and environmental risk factors, along with trauma indicators. FASD is just one factor that may be present for a young person and just one factor that may need to be considered by child and youth protection services when working with a young person to understand their individual needs and address their offending behaviour. I note that Mrs Kikkert started her speech with a reference to the emphasis in the youth justice blueprint on the unique needs of each young person coming into contact with the youth justice system and the need to provide individualised support.
Young people who have been charged with or convicted of a criminal offence may be ordered by the court to be supervised in the community by the child and youth protection services or detained in the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre. These young people are provided with support and supervision, the aim being to strengthen their supports and address the risks of reoffending. Each young person supervised on a youth justice order by child and youth protection services has a case manager responsible for working with the young person and their care team to assess their individual risks, needs and responsiveness to interventions, and the strengths that will assist in protecting them from future reoffending.
CYPS case managers conduct assessments on young people in order to guide service responses, inform case planning and/or obtain information that has been requested by the court. General assessments completed by the young person’s case manager assist in understanding how biological, psychological and social factors combine and interact to impact on a young person’s health, wellbeing and environment.
For young people who have been found guilty of an offence, a criminogenic risk assessment can be completed to assist CYPS to support effective case planning. The youth level of service case management inventory is a tool that surveys a young person’s risk, need, responsivity and strengths and protective factors. The purpose of the tool is to assess these factors to identify areas of concern that may impact on a young person’s likelihood of reoffending. This, in turn, assists with identifying
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video