A huge waiting list for integrated family services in Ballarat means services are not responding in a timely way and families are not getting help until crisis point.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Child and Family Services Ballarat works with 7000 people in the community.
One in five children are developmentally vulnerable and one in 10 households are seeking services.
Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare chief executive officer Deb Tsorbaris said Ballarat’s lack of emergency housing meant a high number of vulnerable young people were forced to live in motels and hotels.
There was also a foster care shortage in Ballarat compounding the problem.
“We are discovering that certainly for families we are waiting until they hit crisis point before we can provide them with the services that they need,” she said. “But we know that with the right support, family can stay together and children can stay safe.
“We need to make it as easy as possible for children and young people to access education support, to stay at school and have the best opportunities after school to go on to higher education.”
Ms Tsorbaris said removing children from their families had to be the last option, which meant providing the necessary support early through expanded early years programs, early parenting centres and comprehensive therapeutic care for children who needed it.
“If you get in early and support families when their needs are smaller, when their children are younger, great things happen,” she said.
“But the huge risk is when you don’t get in early things do go wrong.”
Ms Tsorbaris said with Ballarat’s population growth, it was important to ensure people who were struggling now did not struggle more in the future.
The centre relies heavily on foster and kinship carers to support children that can not live with their families and was working with agencies to increase numbers.
“When kids are in care that’s when we should be doing the best work that we can,” Ms Tsorbaris said.
“We desperately need more (carers), we desperately need new governments to invest in our carers, making sure they have the right resources available when they have kids in their care.
“We know that is not always the case and that carers don’t always stay the course because governments don’t invest in them in a timely way.”
Ahead of the state election, the centre is calling for a $100 million per year investment in integrated family services and a $5000 investment per year per carer from the state government to address these needs.
