Registration opens 8:30am | Conference from 9am until 4pm
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In celebration of Child Protection Week, we welcome clinicians and other professionals who work in the field of child wellbeing and protection to our annual conference.
This year we are excited to feature our Keynote Speaker, Dr Cathy Humphreys as well as Kate Piromalli, Sue Buratti, Deanne Dale, Kimberly Chiswell, Fiona Beale and Samantha Lukey who will be presenting fantastic workshops.
‘Every child, in every community, needs a fair go’ Cathy Humphreys is Professor of Social Work at University of Melbourne. She is co-chair of the Melbourne research Alliance to End Violence Against Women and Their Children (MAEVe).
She specialises in applied research. Four projects in the past 5 years have worked with the Safe & Together Institute using practice-led, action research through facilitated multi-stakeholder workshops and Communities of Practice. This approach reflects a profound interest in knowledge translation to ensure the support of practice through research.
Her research focuses on DFV and child abuse. She has a long-term interest in the intersection of DFV with other complexities including mental health and AOD. Professor Humphreys is a well published author of more than 125 journal articles. She worked at the University of Warwick for 12 years leading a domestic violence and child abuse research centre before returning to Australia in 2006. For 15 years she worked as a social worker.
This workshop will include interactive activities, discussion and the presentation of evidence-based strategies to support the regulation and sensory needs of children and young people experiencing mental health complexities, with a specific focus on Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Trauma. The workshop will be delivered from an occupational therapy perspective, with additional reference to key neuroscience and attachment- based research.
Kate Piromalli is a senior Occupational Therapist currently working at the Autism Advisory and Support Service. Kate has fifteen years’ experience in the child and family mental health sector, supporting children, families and communities with a range of vulnerabilities including developmental trauma and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Kate has worked in clinical and consultative roles across health, NGO and private organisations. She has also worked as a research associate for the University of NSW and an Occupational Therapy lecturer for the University of Sydney. Kate has specific interest and experience in providing training around the sensory and regulation needs of children and young people experiencing mental health complexities.
All workshops listed below will be held at the same time at the conference. Participants are asked to nominate which workshop they wish to attend by completing the form below. Please give a first and second preference. Positions in each workshops will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis. Completing the form below does not confirm attendance at any particular workshop. You will be informed at the conference as to which workshop you have been allocated.
As a sector, there is a push towards a more trauma-sensitive approach in the way in which we therapeutically support Children and Young People who have experienced abuse and trauma. How we write about them must also change. As professionals our words are powerful, they can be used to advocate or undermine those we write about. Historically, how we represent children and young people in our written materials could have characterised them as the problem, inadvertently discounting their trauma experience and their desire to be seen heard, and valued by their trauma-based behaviors.
We must produce written materials that allow everyone who is a relational resource to a Child and Young Person to understand them in a way that sees the impact of their trauma experiences as the motivation for their behaviour.
Deficit-focused writing sits in the realm of the child’s behaviour only. The trauma-sensitive practice invites us to represent them in a way that evokes an understanding of how that behaviour was an attempt at seeking connection rather than seeing it as a deficit of the Child. This workshop will explore ways to represent children in Trauma sensitive language that can be read and understood by all who care for Children and Young People, including them.
Sue Buratti is the Senior Manager for Therapeutic Services NSW for the Australian Childhood Foundation. She has worked in NGO, Government and private sectors for many years. She has provided therapy, supervision, training and consultancy, with a predominant focus on childhood trauma and its impact across the lifespan. She is an advocate for children’s rights. Sue has trained and presented both nationally and internationally.
Inspired by the teachings of Canadian community worker and clinical supervisor Vikki Reynolds, this workshop will explore and contrast the ethics of individualised ‘child centred practice’ with a collective ethics where children and the socio-political, cultural and community contexts of their lives are at the centre of our understanding and practice.
The workshop will invite participants to consider their preferred personal and professional ethical stance and how this relates to the codified professional and organisational ethics of their workplaces. We will then explore how we can enact our preferred ethical stances in finding solidarity (points of ethical connection) with others and how this can be an effective response at times where we feel like we are exhausted or feel spiritually and emotionally spent and demoralised by our work contexts.
Deanne Dale has been a social worker for over 30 years, working as a clinical manager and supervisor in services working with children, young people and their families responding to inter-personal and systemic violence and trauma. In recent years she has been teaching and supervising social work students and has an independent clinical supervision practice.
Kimberly Chiswell identifies as a settler migrant of Anglo Mexican heritage with white privilege. She provides managerial support to the Nabu and Counselling teams at Waminda. She is also an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker with over 20 years experience, a clinical supervisor and an educator in the Advance Social Work Practice Course at the University of Wollongong. She specialises in the field of Violence and Systemic responses and is informed by Narrative and Response Based Practice.
In this workshop, we will use the DIR Floortime® Model to explore the stages of functional emotional development and look at body, mind and relationship through videos and case studies. The aim of the workshop is to provide participants with practical skills and knowledge that can be used in their work with children.
Fiona Beale is a Senior Occupational Therapist and DIR Floortime® Practitioner with Noah’s Inclusion services and has over 30 years’ experience working with young children. Over the past 10 years she has worked closely with educators in Early Childhood Education Centres, providing mentoring and training and together developing strategies to support children with engagement and emotional regulation. Fiona is passionate about giving every child the opportunity to feel emotionally connected and to develop a sense of self-worth and confidence in their early years.
This workshop will explore the concepts of trauma informed practice and approaches to implementing a model in your workplace. Informed by the Blue Knot Foundation (AU), Australian Childhood Foundation (AU), Dr Judy Atkinson and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service (USA), practical strategies will be introduced and the constraints of the approach will be discussed. Participants will leave with a greater understanding of trauma informed practice and practical ways to incorporate the approach into their workplace.
Samantha Lukey has been a Social Worker for 23 years. Prior to this she was a Welfare Worker for 10 years. She has worked as a case worker, senior health clinician and manager, providing supervision for more than 18 years. She has a particular passion and interest in Trauma-Responsive Practice and is currently completing doctoral studies in this area. She is particularly interested in the interface between working in a trauma responsive context and collaborating within systems.