Media Release
May 22 2006
Couples can divorce - parents can't
Children are being let down by a family law system focused on satisfying separating adults and managed by the many practitioners unqualified to address children’s needs. And the Federal Government’s new Family Relationship Centres are unlikely to improve the situation.
These are some of the findings in the latest report of Children and Families in Transition (CAFIT), a collaborative project between University of South Australia’s Conflict Management Research Group in the Hawke Research Institute and Centacare Family Services, funded by the Telstra Foundation.
Associate Professor Dale Bagshaw said the report Children and families in transition: towards a child-centred integrated model of practice shows children are voiceless in the separation process and yet deeply affected by it.
“The system underestimates the effects of separation on children, especially where there is entrenched parental conflict and violence,” Prof Bagshaw said. “In addition to missing an absent parent, children experience grief and loss in other ways: when they change schools, move homes, give up pets, and don’t get to see other family members as often.”
Denying children a voice in the process, and thereby failing to address their needs, has serious practical consequences.
“Very poor decisions will be taken and inappropriate parenting agreements will be made,” Prof Bagshaw said.
The report concludes the Government’s new Family Relationship Centres are unlikely to address the issues that face children “in any significant way”, and calls for a child-centred model of service delivery which:
• prioritises the needs and rights of children;
• enhances communication between parents and children;
• minimises the effects of parental conflict, violence and abuse;
• assists parents to help their children to cope with separation.
Prof Bagshaw said education and training will play a critical role in any shift from an adult-centric approach to a child-centred model to separation.
“We need to run groups that focus on educating parents, relations and children, as well as judges and teachers,” she said. “And we need counsellors and mediators specifically trained to interview children, with appropriate undergraduate degrees or postgraduate qualifications.”
As the next step in the CAFIT project, a comprehensive model of service delivery is currently being designed, trialed and evaluated involving UniSA postgraduate students and Centacare Family Services.
Prof Bagshaw will report on the findings of the Children and Families in Transition project at a seminar from 12.30pm to 2pm, Thursday May 25 in Room 1-06, Murray House, UniSA Magill Campus.
At the seminar, Dr Barbara Spears will also present The weft and warp of girls’ friendships and bullying: an explanatory model. This second session of the seminar will explore complexities of girls’ dynamics in schools, with particular attention to the role that friendships play, the goals of their negative behaviours and girls’ perceptions of bullying.
Visit http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/events/default.asp for further details.
Please advise karen.hewitt@unisa.edu.au if you wish to attend.
Contact for interviews
- Assoc Prof Dale Bagshaw office (08) 8302 4375 email dale.bagshaw@unisa.edu.au
Media contact
- Vincent Ciccarello office (08) 8302 0578 mobile 0434 603 457 email vincent.ciccarello@unisa.edu.au