Crisis for at-risk youth

Brian
THE state government, in the form of The Department of Human Services, Corrections (Youth Justice) and Dept. Of Children and Families has (again) demonstrated complete ineptitude when dealing with young offenders and youth ‘at risk’ of homelessness.

The current situation for acomodating young people aged 13-17 years is now beyond crisis point in the North of the state.

Where do young people, especially those in the 15-17 year old age group live if they are wards of the state, or recently released from Ashley Youth Detention Centre, or if they are homeless for one reason or another? The answer: There is currently no available accomodation for these young people. In launceston, there are two youth shelters, which combined, accomodate around a dozen young people. They are both at full occupancy, have been for months, and are having to turn away new clients.

The Ashley Youth Detention Centre is at beyond capacity. As there is no ‘outside’ accomodation available for those on remand, awaiting court, young people remain remanded in custody. The Department of Child and family services only operates 2 group homes in the Launceston area, both of which are overcrowded, (in the last 3-4 years, three group homes have been shut down after gross mismanagement by the middle eschelons of Childrens and Family services ‘Out of Home Care’ unit.)

With the number of detainees in Ashley Youth Detention centre increasing, and the number of young offenders increasing with no where for young offenders to reside once they have served their time in AYDC, where are these young people going to live?

With the number of child abuse cases being reported to the child protection unit, where will these young people be housed?

So far, the practice policy of Children and family services staff is to not respond. That’s it. For a young person aged 15 years, Child protection case workers push them to recieve ‘unreasonable to live at home allowance’ UTLAH, from Centrelink. Once Centrelink starts paying these 15-16 year olds, Child and Family services washes their hands, and the young person , in their practice, is ‘no longer their problem’ because they recieve Centrelink, therefore they are classed as independent. Perhaps to some degree they are financially independent with Commonwealth pocket money, but a 15-16 year old has zero budgetting skills, can’t sign a lease, and besides, it is State Government Law that they remain under the guardianship/ protection of the state until they are 18 years old. But all support is dropped.

Young people can try to enter an mythical program run by Anglicare called ‘PASS’. Pass hasn’t had any willing new foster carers for years, and the new careres don’t want an old puppy in the form of a teenager whose has trouble with police, drug and alcohol issues, mental health problems and who has suffered neglect at the hands of the state since they were forcibly removed from their deadbeat parents and had government sponsored carers who are unqualified and underfunded.

So the current reality is that if a young peron is homeless, (whether they are a young offender, victim of abuse, abandoned or a ward of the state), and that young person is aged 13-17, their chances of getting some form of medium to long term accomodation in Northern tasmania is extremely limited. If lucky enough, they may get a bed for the night at a shelter. If the young person is 15 years of age, bad luck. You can’t sign a lease, apply for public housing and Children’s and Family services will help you get Centrelink if you’re lucky. if you want a roof over you’re head, well…there isn’t one to be had. If you are 14-17 and have schizophrenia or some other mental illness, you may as well top yourself because in addition to the problems obtaining accomodation being magnified, there’s no residential adolescent mental health facility in the state. Piss poor isn’t it? To add insult to injury, Disability servives won’t take you on because you are not 18 years of age. You can make an appointment to see someone at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, but in all honesty, you’d be lucky to get an appointment before the end of the year.

So much for the state being an exemplary parent for children in state care.

What is Children and Family Services Doing about this? They are reviewing the processes, twiddling thumbs, (well, they don’t answer the phone, and are always in “meetings”). They are now having more meetings about implementing reformss based on earlier meetings. Hopefully that matters to the 15year old sleeping under a bridge, in a drug dealers house, or who knows where.

Lara?, Lyn? Is there anybody out there……………..??