Foster care in crisis

With almost 5000 children in care in WA, a leading worker in the field has described it as a crisis situation.

Accord West manager of out of home care Patricia Thomson has been working with children in care for more than 30 years and said it was worse than ever before.

“We don’t have enough foster carers, we have a number of children waiting to be placed, but we don’t have the numbers of people to do that,” she said.

“We are particularly looking at the South Metropolitan region — this whole area is in as much of a crisis as anywhere else.”

Accord West is a WA comm-unity support organisation founded in 1983 as the Homeless Youth Accommodation Service, aiming to reach out to those willing to provide a home for a child.

“We need foster care placements that can provide kids with long-term care so they can be settled in a home, in a school and establish friendships,” Ms Thomson said.

“We are looking for as many different people as there are different kids.”

Ms Thomson said the situation was getting worse, with rising costs, falling employment and social issues including domestic violence and drug use all contributing factors.

“Children in care mirror the state of our society,” she said.

Ms Thomson said in some cases, the children came to them as little broken bundles of hurt, with children as young as 12 sleeping on the streets.

“We currently have a 10-year-old boy who has been in our care since he was four and in that time he has been in 18 placements, so you can imagine how he feels,” she said.

“He’s a little boy who just wants his mum but he can’t have her and so he needs consistency, continuity and care.

“You have children who talk about killing themselves, one boy little said ‘nobody likes me I may as well die’.”

Noel Ramsey and Sandra Squires were previously foster carers and are going through the accreditation process with Accord West.

“You put your heart and soul into the little-ies and when they do smile and you build a rapport it’s just lovely,” Ms Squires said.

“It is joyous to see a child come from despair and then start to have an air of confidence.”

The couple said they were excited to welcome another child into their home, but admitted it could be hard at times.

“They are traumatised and then they come into the house and realise someone cares about them and they start smiling – that’s a benefit for me,” Mr Ramsey said.

Ms Thomson said carers wouldn’t be out of pocket or on their own, with a 24-hour seven-days-a-week service for support.

“There are visits, phone calls, training and workshops, counselling services and case managers that work closely with the families,” she said.

“Kids maintain contact (with foster carers) and become a part of the family - it’s amazing what a caring nurturing home can do for these children.”