Karen Field, drummond street services

drummond street services offers a range of services across metropolitan Melbourne and Geelong including child, youth and adult mental health services, youth services (City of Yarra and City of Melbourne) and relationship and family counselling and support. drummond street works with a range of young people who use violence, including those from CaLD communities who have complex trauma histories (including refugee-settlement and family violence), and sex and gender diverse young people who attend drummond street through our Queerspace and Queerspace Youth services. Through this work, adolescent use of violence across multiple settings, including in the home, has become a key feature of the work that we do, with engagement in family, school, community and criminal justice settings. The complexity of the issue is evident. Practice data from our work has found that in the majority of cases, young people who are using violence have experienced, or are still experiencing, family violence from an adult perpetrator. Additionally, many of these young people have complex cognitive and mental health issues (including diagnosis) and often behaviour and conduct issues begin to emerge at a younger age (5-10 years).

This presentation explores the issue of adolescent violence in the home by presenting some of our client data to show the correlations between co-occurring risk issues and presenting needs for families. Karen also highlights case studies and discusses possible service solutions to address this complex issue.

Karen Field – CEO of drummond street services/queerspace since 2005, has over 28 years’ experience in developing, managing and delivering a range of evidence-based programs and services to communities, families, parents, young people and children.

Karen is a well-regarded champion of research and evaluation to ensure that sectors and organisations build their capacity and contribute to the knowledge base of health and wellbeing; and that we identify, understand and meet the needs of our communities, families and individuals with a strong focus on those who are vulnerable and excluded. She is a campaigner of human rights and dignity for Australians and the recognition of all families; this is especially demonstrated in her commitment to Stepfamilies, Refugee and Humanitarian Entrants and their families and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered Community and their families.

Find out more about drummond street services: https://ds.org.au/