Speakers for 2006
- Dr Stephen Stathis, 'Drug and Alcohol Assessment – Mental Health (suicide-Self Harm) risk at entry level to the Juvenile Justice System.
- Kirsty Sword Gusmao, 'Community Building and Engagement with Communities in Timor Leste.'
- Lisa Edgerton, Julie De Waard, Helen Wilkinson, Stephen Butler, Michael Irving, 'Reducing Social Isolation of Older People.'
- Associate Professor Stephen Smallbone, 'Understanding and Responding to young people who have committee sexual offences in Queensland.'
- Associate Professor Anna Stewart, 'Transitions and Turning Points: Examining the Links between Child Maltreatment and Juvenile Offending.'
- Ms Bernadette McDermott and Mr Bruce Watt 'The Child and Youth Forensic Outreach Service, and The Engagement of Families of Conduct Problem Children in Mental Health Services Project'
- Mr Alton Hollett and Professor Doug May 'Measuring Community Wellbeing in Canada.'
- Dr Michael Cuthill and Dr Steve Johnson, 'Developing a social sustainability framework for SEQ and, Social sustainability: the Portland Story'
- Dr Clive Williams, Stealing a car to be a man: The importance of cars and driving in the gender identity of adolescent males
- Dr Sacha Rombouts, 'Enhancing Risk Assessment with Juvenile Offenders.'
Dr Stephen Stathis
Dr Stathis is the Deputy Director of the Child and Family Therapy Unit, Royal Children's Hospital Brisbane, where he leads the Consultation Liaison team.
In this presentation, Dr Stathis discussed what services the Mental Health Tobacco and Other Drugs Service (MHATODS) provides at Brisbane Youth Detention Centre (BYDC). He also discussed recent findings from the Suicide Risk Assessment Team (SRAT) study, which looked at the frequency of prevalence of suicidal and deliberate self harming behaviours of young people in BYDC who were put on high (and medium) suicidal observation.
Kirsty Sword Gusmao
Kirsty Sword Gusmao was actively involved in the struggle for East Timor's independence, and now as wife of its President Xanana Gusmao and First Lady of Timor Leste, she is actively involved in its reconstruction.
In a climate of economic uncertainty and political transition, life is hard for the average East Timorese: unemployment is high, illiteracy particularly among women presents a huge challenge, opportunities for economic activities are limited, and many of the population still suffer from trauma.
Today, due to the high number of widows, orphans and dislocated people, households headed by women with little economic or material means to survive are common. Sexual and gender-based violence continues even in times of peace and East Timor has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world.
Women, however, continue to be the backbone of their communities. New economic opportunities appropriate to their skills and education are continually being sought. Craft production holds out an important hope for these women. UNIFEM recognised this and with Timor Aid initiated a project to upgrade the production of 'tais', the traditional cloth woven on backstrap looms.
Kirsty now plays a key role in thinking through the multitude of factors involved in creating a new nation.
Lisa Edgerton, Julie De Waard, Helen Wilkinson, Stephen Butler, Michael Irving
Social isolation encompasses both social and emotional isolation – that is, both a low level of social participation and also the subjective experience of loneliness.
The Cross Government Project to Reduce Social Isolation of Older People aims to identify leading practice models that can reduce social isolation in older people and are transferable across communities of similar types. It is expected that these models will also contribute to the reduction of social isolation of other population groups. The project provides the opportunity for agencies to work together for an improved outcome for older people.
Five demonstration projects have been funded to reduce social isolation of older people and improve the quality of live for many ageing Queenslanders. These projects include:
- Brisbane City Council (Social Inclusion Project)
- Multicultural Development Association (Culturally Appropriate Volunteer Services)
- Fitness Queensland Association (Steady Steps Falls Prevention Program)
- Hervey Bay City Council (Connecting Points Project)
- Greenvale State School Parents and Citizens Association (Seniors Connecting)
In this forum, each Project Coordinator discussed the development and implementation of their initiative; their learnings, challenges and implications for future policy and program development.
Associate Professor Stephen Smallbone
Griffith Adolescent Forensic Assessment and Treatment Centre (GAFATC) at Griffith University provides State-wide assessment and treatment services for young people who have appeared in Queensland courts and have either pleaded guilty to or have been found guilty of a sexual offence.
Associate Professor Stephen Smallbone is the clinical and research director of GAFATC in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University. He has been working as a psychologist with adult sexual offenders for the past 16 years, and with adolescent sexual offenders for the past 5 years.
Ms Sue Rayment-McHugh is a psychologist with 16 years experience in the fields of child protection and youth justice. She has worked as a senior clinician with GAFATC for the last three years, and this year was appointed GAFATC Manager.
This presentation summarised current thinking about aetiology, risk, and therapeutic interventions concerning sexual offending by young people and provide a descriptive profile of GAFATC's clients: it outlined the conceptual and empirical foundations of GAFATC's model of practice; highlighted the key challenges to providing an effective, efficient, State-wide service, and described a number of innovative solutions developed in partnership with the Department of Communities and other stakeholders.
Associate Professor Anna Stewart
Dr Anna Stewart is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and Program Director for Justice Modelling @ Griffith. Justice Modelling @ Griffith assists in governmental planning and decision making processes by applying a broad range of modelling technologies to crime control and crime prevention issues.
This research examines the links between child maltreatment and juvenile offending by analysing data from young people born in 1983 and 1984 who had contact with the Department of Families for a child protection matter. This data was then matched to juvenile offending records, to obtain a longitudinal view of these young people's life course of maltreatment and subsequent offending.
The young people were put into six distinctive groups, distinguished by the frequency and duration of the maltreatment and the age of onset.
One of the key findings of the research was that for two of the six groups, victimisation experiences peaked around the transition from preschool to primary school. A further two groups peaked at the transition from primary school to secondary school. Significantly, different offending rates were found among children in each of these trajectories even after controlling for gender and Indigenous status. The research also indicated that children who experienced victimisation in adolescence were more likely to offend than children who only experienced maltreatment before adolescence.
These findings therefore have important implications for our understandings of the pathways from child maltreatment to juvenile offending.
Ms Bernadette McDermott and Mr Bruce Watt
The Child and Youth Forensic Outreach Service (CYFOS) commenced in 2003 and is a consultation-liaison service that provides support to the Child and Youth Mental Health Service, Youth Justice Service and other services regarding working with young people with forensic and mental health concerns. A significant role for CYFOS involves utilising research on forensic mental health issues in the development of training programs and informing clinical support provided. Ms McDermott presented an overview of what services CYFOS provides.
Children with disturbances of conduct, such as persistent aggression, cruelty, fire-setting and stealing are among the most frequent referrals to mental health services. An ongoing concern for service providers is the difficulty of engaging families of children with conduct problems effectively in treatment. The Enhancing Effective Treatment Project, supported by a Royal Children's Hospital Foundation Grant, investigated innovative approaches to enhance mental health services for children with conduct problems and their families. A one-day training program resulted in changes to mental health practices, with subsequent increase in treatment participation. Gains in mental health functioning were found for children referred with disturbances of conduct. Maintenance of improved emotional and behavioural functioning is likely to result in better interactions with family, school and the wider community, particularly reductions in antisocial behaviour.
Mr Alton Hollett and Professor Doug May
Mr Alton Hollett is the Director, Newfoundland Labrador Statistics Agency (NLSA) in Canada and Professor Doug May is a Professor in Statistics at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. Both presented on the Canadian Index of Wellbeing and the Community Accounts web tool. The information included the below.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed in the past few years an international leadership role in co-ordinating, research and support for progress and wellbeing indicator models, especially through its new global project, 'Measuring the Progress of Nations' . At the OECD's international conference at Milan in June 2006, a proposal for an international collaboration to develop a national model of progress and wellbeing framework or index was initiated; it will involve Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Bhutan and Sweden and possibly other countries, and be based on Canada's world-leading project, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing.
The Canadian Index of Wellbeing has been significantly influenced by the Newfoundland Labrador Statistics Agency (NLSA) Community Accounts, a world leading model of a multi-level (state/regional, local and neighbourhood) progress and wellbeing indicator system. It was developed from 1996 onwards as an integral part of provincial and community planning, with continuous input from users and local communities. The Community Accounts website is an outstanding example of how wellbeing and progress data can be made accessible not just to policymakers but ordinary community members, by a combination of innovative design and a practical user focus. It includes do-it-yourself tutorials, backed by a powerful community education and support program run by the NLSA across the province; great visual displays; and new web tools which allow users to perform different tasks like: comparing all major well-being areas (economic, social, environmental and governance) across the province and down to local and neighbourhood levels, custom building a statistical summary of their neighbourhood or a broad index of wellbeing, and identifying 'at risk communities'.
The Community Accounts (CA) system stores data by geography and data topic within eleven interrelated domains or 'accounts'. All data is available free and without restriction to public and government users alike, and includes statistics from state and administrative agencies normally not publicly or easily available, viewable through a common portal. The capacity to cross check data against factors such as income, employment, social status, education, health, and the physical environment, allows needs identification, planning, monitoring, research, and evaluation of the factors that influence the Province's economic and social landscape and sustain communities and regions within the province. As a result, the CA also provides a major analytical framework for understanding the factors underlying successful social, economic and environmental development of communities, regions and the province for both the Provincial Government and stakeholder groups such as communities, community agencies and citizens.
The CA has a high profile within Newfoundland and Labrador, and Canada generally, winning numerous local and national awards, and last year, was nominated for the UN Public Service Award.Dr Michael Cuthill and Dr Steve Johnson
Dr Michael Cuthill is the Director, UQ Boilerhouse Community Engagement Centre and Dr Steve Johnson is a Consultant and Trainer at Portland State University, USA. They discussed their work in the following subjects.
Developing a social sustainability framework for SEQ
The SEQ Regional Plan 2005-2026 demands quite specific responses from State and Local Governments in relation to planning for social sustainability. However, clear direction for addressing these issues is not articulated in this plan. In addition, a lack of theoretical clarity, relating to social sustainability, is identified in international literature as an emerging issue of concern for policy makers. Current research is working towards integrating diverse but interrelated areas of social research into a broader theoretical model of social sustainability. Results will provide a solid theoretical foundation for developing appropriate social sustainability policy, planning and operational responses.
Social sustainability: the Portland story
Since the 1970s, according to Robert Putnam and others, America's civic life has been on a sharp decline. The number of citizens involved in most kinds of political activity as well as social capital building interactions have plummeted. As Mr. Putnam notes in his most recent book, Better Together, there is one notable exception, Portland, Oregon. The implications of Portland's exceptional civic life are important to understand for activists, practitioners, and academics interested in building socially sustainable communities.
Dr Clive Williams
Dr Clive Williams is a graduate of the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland and a lecturer in adolescent development in the School of Education at University of Queensland. Dr Williams' PhD presentation was concerned with the role of gender in relation to adolescent male offending with particular focus on vehicle theft. A number of key questions were examined in the research and were addressed in this presentation. The questions are: Why is vehicle theft an overwhelmingly adolescent offence? Is it connected to driving? To cars? Or is it something to do with being a particular type of adolescent male? Is it an issue of masculinity? If gender is a salient issue in relation to vehicle theft and offending, how do we examine gender? Does gender need to be considered in programs for these young men? Finally, how do adolescent male offenders and non-offenders compare in relation to their ideas of gender and masculinity?
Dr Sacha Rombouts
Dr Sacha Rombouts is a Research Fellow from the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University. He has a PhD in forensic psychology and his thesis involved the development of a risk assessment instrument for juvenile sex offenders.
Dr Rombouts presented the results of research he conducted into the main risk factors for re-offending of juvenile sex offenders. Specifically, he discussed risk factors for both sexual and non-sexual re-offending and the brief risk assessment checklist for juvenile sex offenders - the Juvenile Risk Assessment Checklist(J-RAC).
Dr Rombouts presented preliminary psychometric properties of this instrument and discussed how it should be used in the context of a holistic risk assessment process. He also discussed the next steps in terms of conducting further research on risk assessment with juvenile sex offenders, including an assessment of the ability of the J-RAC to predict re-offending and the identification of dynamic risk factors to enhance our understanding of the re-offending process.
Other languages