Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/14570
Title: The Halls Creek Way of Residential Child Care: Protecting Children is Everyone's Business
Contributor(s): Hodgkins, Kylie A (author); Crawford, Frances  (author); Budiselik, William R (author)
Publication Date: 2013
Open Access: Yes
DOI: 10.1017/cha.2013.5Open Access Link
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/14570
Open Access Link: https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/28242Open Access Link
Abstract: This paper describes the collaboration between an Aboriginal community and Western Australia's (WA) Department for Child Protection (DCP) in designing and operating a residential child care facility in a predominantly Aboriginal community. Research literature has established that the effective operation of child protection systems in remote Aboriginal communities requires practitioners and policy-makers to have awareness of local and extra-local cultural, historical and contemporary social factors in nurturing children. This ethnographic case study describes how a newspaper campaign heightened public and professional awareness of child abuse in the town of Halls Creek, in WA's Kimberley region. With its largely Aboriginal population, Halls Creek lacked the infrastructure to accommodate an inflow of regional people. Homelessness, neglect and poverty were widespread. Within a broader government and local response, DCP joined with community leaders to plan out of home care for children. Detailed are the importance and complexities of negotiating between universal standardised models of care and local input. Strategies for building positive relationships with children's family while strengthening both parenting capacity and community acceptance, and use of the facility are identified. Key to success was the development of a collaborative 'third-space' for threading together local and professional child protection knowledge.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Children Australia, 38(2), p. 61-69
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Place of Publication: United Kingdom
ISSN: 2049-7776
1035-0772
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 160501 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy
160702 Counselling, Welfare and Community Services
111701 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 450407 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health policy
440902 Counselling, wellbeing and community services
450401 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and disability
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 920303 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health - Health System Performance (incl. Effectiveness of Interventions)
950201 Communication Across Languages and Culture
920399 Indigenous Health not elsewhere classified
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 210303 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health system performance
130201 Communication across languages and culture
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article

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