Berry Street Web Docs Annual Report 2012 | Page 20
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Our ‘We Never Give Up’
commitment really
guides our work with
these young people, as
well as our knowledge
of effective therapeutic
interventions.
Residential Care
Therapeutic
Of the 6,000 children and young people in Out of Home
Care in Victoria, because of significant abuse and neglect,
approximately 500 are placed in residential care. These
are mostly young people whose traumatic and abusive
childhoods have left them with relationship difficulties,
lack of trust, poor self-esteem, self-harming and/or
acting out and health issues. They are also likely to be
significantly behind their peers academically and have
either dropped out of, or been excluded from, school.
It is now generally accepted that when children suffer
abuse, violence or serious neglect, especially in their early
years, it can have a lifelong impact. We know that such
trauma affects both the brain’s structure and the way the
developing brain works. We also know what needs to be
done to help the child recover from this trauma.
Berry Street is recognised as an organisation which
understands how to help these troubled young people.
We are often the ‘last resort’, after everything else
has been tried. This puts tremendous pressure and
expectations on our staff, who live with these young
people in houses in the community.
We know that establishing a relationship with the young
person is the crucial first step. However, these young
people have been let down so many times in the past
that they will continually test our commitment to them.
Our ‘WE NEVER GIVE UP’ commitment really guides our
work with these young people, as well as our knowledge
of effective therapeutic interventions.
During 2011/12, we cared for 232 young people in
34 houses across Victoria, a 9% increase on last year.
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B E R R Y S T R E E T A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 2 / / Services
This is the ‘raison d’être’ of Take Two, our Statewide
Intensive Therapeutic Service. All of the children referred
to Take Two are prioritized by Child Protection because of
the serious trauma they have suffered and/or their actingout or self-harming behaviour.
Under the leadership of Annette Jackson (Director Take
Two), our skilled clinicians develop a comprehensive
assessment of the child’s development, their life history
and the important relationships in their life. From this, they
work directly with the child, but also with the key people in
the child’s life – parent, foster carer, residential care staff,
grandparent, teacher, etc.
Our clinicians often work with children and young people
where other community service organisations have
case management responsibility. Being a Statewide
service, this adds a level of complexity as we negotiate
relationships with more than 20 other community service
organisations.
Some of the highlights included:
»» O
ver the past year, our two specialist therapeutic
services worked intensively with 1,371 children and
young people. Aboriginal children (21%) remain
significantly over-represented in Take Two
»» The establishment of a new service for young people
affected by the Black Saturday bushfires. Funded by
the Youth Bushfire Response Gift, our 10 staff provide
an outreach service to young people in six different
communities. In the first seven months, we have
assisted 168 young people and provided consultation
on 500 other young people
»» Our Adolescent Family Mediation team in the North
helped 280 children & young people and 84 families to
work through conflict and learn more constructive ways
of communicating
»» Take Two has been certified as a flagship site for the
Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) by the
ChildTrauma Academy in the USA. This recognition
builds on our partnership with Dr Bruce Perry and
enables Take Two to act as a mentor for new sites
entering into NMT Certification in Australia
»» In partnership with the Royal Children’s Hospital and
Austin Pre-natal Mental Health Service, Dr Nicole
Milburn (our infant mental health consultant) established
the first introductory Certificate in High Risk Mental
Health (four days), which was greatly appreciated by
the 78 participants from across Victoria
»» A
ssisting the 16 Aboriginal communities of Cape York,
through a partnership with their Congress Community
Development and Education Unit, to establish a Family
Residential Treatment Centre just outside Cooktown
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