From journal articles to Quick Guides and webinars, you will find tools and information to support.
This report from the Mitchell Institute for Education and Health Policy at Victoria University reviews the available data on expenditure and affordability of childcare in Australia and analyses this to determine how much families are spending. The report finds that childcare is unaffordable for around 386,000 Australian families.
Child Family Community Australia has released this paper investigating alcohol-related harm in families and reviewing available evidence on alcohol consumption from March to July 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions were in place. The scoping review found an increase in alcohol consumption among those reporting higher levels of stress and among women aged 36-50. The paper concludes with a review of harm minimisation interventions and strategies to strengthen the health and wellbeing of families.
This report from Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) explores the extent and nature of, and responses to, technology-facilitated abuse in Australia. Drawing on the results of a national survey of 338 support services workers, the report finds that technology-facilitated abuse is a prevalent and growing issue that presents significant barriers to help-seeking. A range of implications for policy and practice are outlined, including the need for training to improve service responses.
The Harmony Alliance and Monash University have released this report investigating migrant and refugee women’s safety with a focus on family violence, help-seeking and trust in institutions, and employment. Survey data from 1,392 migrant and refugee women across Australia shows that 33 per cent of respondents had experienced family violence, and among respondents who were employed in 2019, 10 per cent lost their jobs due to COVID-19. The report includes implications for policy and practice.
This report from Southern Cross University explores the experiences of family workers and managers engaged in telepractice to develop understanding of family work using online technologies. The study finds that telepractice offers a range of benefits and drawbacks for clients and the workforce, suggesting it is suited to use within a suite of practice methods rather than as a replacement for face-to-face engagement.
The Research Centre for Children and Families at the University of Sydney has released this report investigating the support needs of foster and kinship carers in 2020 arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Among carers surveyed, 89 per cent had more support needs as a result of COVID-19. State-wide data from a telephone support service found that the most common support needs were related to family time or contact, education and specialist support. The report concludes with recommendations to improve responses during future crises.
This report released by Wanslea in Western Australia seeks to build the evidence base on the impacts of caring on the mental, physical, social and financial health of grandparent carers, investigate service gaps, and explore the commonalities and differences in the experiences of grandparent carers. The study found that caring comes with significant costs to grandparent carers’ wellbeing with common challenges including poverty, health and navigating systems.
This report from Amanda Sacker and colleagues investigates inequalities in outcomes among adults with care experience by examining health and social functioning in mid-life using longitudinal data from the Office for National Statistics. The study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, found that kinship care was associated with better outcomes in adulthood than foster care.
ARACY has released this report outlining the results of a literature review on the impacts of COVID-19 on children with disability and their families in Australia, and findings from two policy roundtables. The review found that the pandemic exacerbated many of the problems already faced by families with disability, with children younger than school-age being the most negatively affected.
