CRE ATE Ar tYAG:
Manga’s Stor y
Our Future Exhibition
ACTUAL— A u s t r a l i a n C h i l d h o o d Tr a u m a G r o u p
Refle c ting On Work
Matilda the
With The Royal
Therapy Dog
Commission
Contributors
(Continue d)
Australian Childhood
Problem Solving
Trauma Group Training
Through a New Lens
& Events Calendar
Reflecting On Work With The Royal Commission
The work we hear about in relation to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse most commonly regards the Commission hearings themselves. The media focuses on the latest horrific account in a large and complex pool of terrible experiences no one should ever have had to go through. What we don’t hear about are the support services built around the Commission for survivors, supporters and carers employing or caring for survivors of this kind of trauma. Among other organisations, ACT Group has been engaged by the Royal Commission to carry out some of this work – running training and learning sessions for professionals and non-professionals who are providing support to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. ACT Group CEO Gregory Nicolau says much pre-training work has been carried out by himself and Senior Consultant Nicholas Grainger, to make sure the training hit the target. “We ran focus groups at the beginning of the process, inviting people and groups from around Australia working with those impacted by the workings of the Royal Commission to come in and talk about what they thought would be important in training to support them to do their work as professionals and supporters,” Nicolau says. Following the focus groups, Nicolau and Grainger developed a training schedule which they have carried out in full day and half day workshops across Australia, focusing on issues including
Issue 07 Oc tober—De cember 2015
the effects of trauma on victims and those close to them, what supporters can do to help, how professional support can assist, and how to practise self-care when supporting a victim. “What we learnt from the focus groups and later in the training is that there are a lot of people working in this area to support those children and adults who have experienced trauma, but actual practised knowledge or practised wisdom among that group is still developing,” Nicolau says. Nicolau says the big difference between knowledge and practised knowledge is personal insight. “There still is, I think, a certain belief among counsellors and caseworkers that somehow they can ‘put the white coat on’ and keep themselves separate. The reality is that you can’t be so disconnected, sterile or clinical,” Nicolau says. “People were also expecting to have an answer for the person experiencing trauma – you know, you get this model, and that’s how you use it. The thing is, it’s really nothing to do with models. It’s about your ability to form a therapeutic alliance with someone you’re trying to help. Through trauma, people have had broken attachments and betrayals of trust. The relationship with that person is critical; it’s part of the healing process.” With many years’ combined experience in this area behind them, Nicolau and Grainger know that this kind of trauma has significant impact on people for the rest of their lives. In order to deal with a subject that holds such gravity in their training workshops, Nicolau and Grainger note that it is important to acknowledge the darkness of the subject matter early on in conducting training seminars. “Nick and I discussed the parameters and the boundaries of the group early on, about what we
Gregory Nicolau
Lauren Bruce
Amanda Scott
Keir Vaughan
The Artwork for this issue of ACTUAL was created by Raku Pitt.
can do and what we can offer people,” Nicolau says. “I think I demonstrate straight away through my presentation and the issues I talk about in my training that I won’t be easily shocked. It doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s sad and horrible – I absolutely do feel compassion when people tell their stories. But I’m not there to make it about me; it’s about them. So that’s more of a question for me as a trainer – how do I manage myself when there is a lot of emotion in the room? “So there is a separation – not a disconnectedness, but this is a separation in that we have to manage other peoples’ experiences and recognise them and support them in their expressing it, but we don’t have to take it on as our experience.” Grainger says he manages the emotion in the room by setting up the nature of the training environment early on in the seminars. And like Nicolau, Grainger highlights that protective self-care is very important. “One of the things I try and do as part of the day in training is try to manage and set the tone,” Grainger says. “There are instances sometimes when you can see people are going to spill into things that aren’t necessarily going to be helpful with the content of the day. That’s when you make some space for those people at another time – during the break, or after training. “The thing is, it’s important for us as trainers to also model protective self-care to people, too where you are empathetic and understanding of a person’s experiences, which is self-protective. Putting yourself in the victim’s situation and imagining what it was like to experience that person’s experiences is not self-protective, and... ARTICLE Continued—Page 4
“I am constantly saying in training, ‘check in with yourself, check in with the people around you’.”
Editorial ACTUAL—
In Out of Home Care of late, the term “Therapeutic Care” has been used in many settings. Whilst I believe that many people, carers and workers alike, acknowledge that Therapeutic Care is critical in the healing journey of infants, I am less certain about the depth of understanding of what Therapeutic Care is, and what the implications are for children and young people who have experienced cumulative harm. Most organisations put structures, policies and even frameworks in place to encourage actions that are therapeutic in nature from their carers and workers, which is of course a good thing. However, I am concerned that the belief that what you do is more important than how you think may lead to a misunderstanding of what Therapeutic Care is. Therapeutic Care, to some degree, is what takes place privately inside the inner world of the worker or carer. Michael Balint said, “Don’t just do something, sit there”. What Balint was referring to was our ability as ‘helpers’ to sit with the pain of another without trying to remove that experience from them or solve it for them. Helping them to respond to it rather than run from it builds resilience and insight. Therapeutic Care is as much about exploring ones own physical, psychological and spiritual health as it is about creating the environment to help harmed children do this. Gregory Nicolau—CEO
CREATE ArtYAG: Our Future Exhibition
The Our Future Exhibition is a creative expression of the voice of young people in out-of-homecare in the Southern Metropolitan Region. CREATE Foundation (CREATE) is the peak body representing the voices of children and young people in out-of-home-care. CREATE works to build a community with stakeholders in the child and welfare sector to deliver a range of services and programs. Over a three month period, CREATE delivered seven fortnightly Art Youth Advisory Group sessions for 14-17 year olds residing in outof-home-care. Nine participants had their art displayed at the “Our Future” Exhibition. This project was presented by the CREATE Foundation and the Department of Health and Human Services, supported by Berry Street Victoria, MacKillop Family Services, Anglicare Victoria, Menzies Caring for Kids, Children Australia OzChild and Wesley Mission Victoria. The project aimed to allow young people who had experienced out-of-home-care a space and medium to express their voice, and in doing so, have a positive impact on the lives of other
Pets Artist: Amber Amber believes that kids in care and in residential care should be allowed to have pets because animals help you feel happier. Save Photography: Darcy “Never give up. I just wanted to die and get over it. I tried many times. Then I realised people care about me. Now I will not give up.” Discrimination Photography: Darcy Darcy is interested in bringing more acceptance, peace and equality into the world by reducing discrimination. He believes that everyone should be accepted for who they are. “Discrimination is not cool. I got bullied a lot. Because of discrimination I lost who I was and forgot
everyone. I got so depressed that I stopped talking to everyone. It’s not cool to be the fool.” What’s important in care? Graffiti Art: Collaboration The group were asked to think about what the issues in care were for them, and then pick an image or symbol to represent this. Together we created this piece about what’s important to them. Some comments made by the young people when reflecting on their experience in the program: “I learnt about stencils and symbols and to use that to share what matters to me” - Young Participant “It was really, really fun. The best thing was how we splashed the paint. I couldn’t change anything. I did gain skills because I pushed myself. Today was fun!” - Young Participant “I got to learn more about myself. I learnt some things I did not know about photography. I am inspired and I loved taking photos” - Darcy “The best thing was that now I know more people in foster care, I’ve learnt new social skills, and this is an awesome bunch of people” - Bianca “THANK YOU! I had the best night ever! The best thing was meeting new people. Thank you for having me at CREATE it was so nice to meet you guys” - Tayla The exhibition was presented at the Department of Health and Human Services in Dandenong, and
was attended by workers, family members, mentors, friends and carers. The young people had the opportunity to speak about their work to the guests. Having their artwork viewed and celebrated by the community was a highlight for the young people, who were excited that those who see their artwork can have a deeper understanding of the lives of children and young people in care, and the prospect of this supporting change, and improvement of the lives of children and young people in care in future. For more information visit the CREATE Foundation Victoria website: www.create.org.au —Amanda Scott Community Facilitator, CREATE Foundation Victoria
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children and young people in out-of-home-care. The young people were each asked what mattered to them in their lives. With encouragement and support, they explored these issues and themes and used creative expression to voice what was important to them. The themes they chose to explore were “being heard”, “discrimination”, “pets”, “education”, “judgement”, “making a difference” and “family”. Together and individually, they created a series of artworks to express themselves on these topics. Collage, graffiti, photography, spoken word poetry, mixed media and painting art forms were explored. A small selection of the works created by the participants is featured here.
“Never give up. I just wanted to die and get over it. I tried many times. Then I realised people care about me. Now I will not give up.” 03 — 12
ACTUAL—
Reflecting On Work With The Royal Commission (Continued)
...is actually putting yourself at risk of vicarious trauma. “I am constantly saying in training, ‘check in with yourself, check in with the people around you’.” Nicolau agrees. “While the subject matter is dark, this far down the track for me, I understand that I still have to look after my physical, mental and spiritual health. I think working in this area, you learn that over time,” he says. The grave issues dealt with in the Royal Commission are very difficult for the many people affected by the abuse. However, Nicolau and Grainger point out, many positives have come out of the undertaking, including exposing to the community the nature and the breadth of abuse, and also the fact it is still happening in organisations across the country. “There are lots of generalist counsellors now getting into trauma counselling, trying to learn how to deal with this subject matter,” Nicolau
says. “And part of the reason for that is most likely because over the last six months, maybe longer, the Royal Commission has started looking at out-of-home care. Before, it was enquiring into institutions such as educational institutions and orphanages that have since closed down, from the 1980s and before. But now they’re looking into out-of-home care, in the here and now. That means there has been a lot more interest in this area. “Because one of the issues in out-of-home care is that it risks being a very secretive place. The only organisation I know that is more secretive would be ASIO,” Nicolau says perhaps slightly tongue in cheek. “We’ve set up this situation where we can’t show kids in the media, we can’t tell the public what their story is. So these out-of-home care organisations operate with less scrutiny than other organisations as a result. Unless you’re investigating into it and you work in one of these organisations or related services yourself, generally it’s not an open system and the general public don’t know much about it. People don’t talk or chat about it and I think there’s a problem with that.” Nic olau says these circumstances allow organisations operating in the outof-home care system to self-regulate to some extent, even though there are comprehensive policies on paper guiding the care of children and young p e o p l e. “Since the ’90s, agencies have had to survive in often difficult financial circumstances, which has developed a competitive way of operating. Rather than working together, they compete. So for that reason, no organisation wants to say that they could be doing better in certain areas of their services,” Nicolau says. “And I saw
that in the recent Senate Enquiry hearings into Out-of-Home Care – where people from some organisations were treating the situation almost as a marketing opportunity, talking about all the wonderful work they were doing. And some of these organisations that were presenting themselves as such at these hearings, I know they have some very challenging things going on. So that worries me”. “The secretive nature means that there’s still a bit of ignorance in the community. For example, I was speaking to one of the carers attending our training who shared a story about her friends’ notion of out-of-home care. She’s been looking after children in out-of-home care for three or four years now, and some of her friends think children are in those circumstances because they’ve been ‘naughty’ in some way. Now this is stuff I remember in my early years in the ’80s being said, but here we are, thirty-plus years later, and there’s a community out there who still think these kids haven’t been living at home because they’ve been ‘naughty’ and just need some good charity to set them on the straight and narrow.” “I really hope the Royal Commission blows this idea out of the water, because I think out-of-home care is only going to change if the community takes more responsibility and is alerted to the realities of out-ofhome care and what infants, children and young people need to truly heal from complex trauma. So that they do not have to live the lives full of stress that so many adults who have come before the Royal Commission had.” Both Nicolau and Grainger agree that although it is not black and white as to exactly what the effect of the Royal Commission will be on victims and their supporters, the experience has certainly been
“It’s interesting, what we’ve seen in private sessions is about two-thirds of those people have been men. So there are many more men talking about this experience of abuse than there had been previously.”
beneficial for many who have shared their story as part of the Royal Commission process. “I hope, in a broader community sense, that there is going to be a positive effect, due to the tidying up of some things that shouldn’t have been allowed to be untidy in the first place,” Grainger says. “Consistency of processes across jurisdictions in background checking, for instance. On an individual level, I think there have been many who have found it very helpful, very empowering and strengthening, to be able to tell their story.” “It’s interesting, what we’ve seen in private sessions is about two-thirds of those people have been men. So there are many more men talking about this experience of abuse than there had been previously,” Nicolau says. “ . . . Yes, and about two-thirds of those men are over 50,” Grainger says. “So it gives you a good picture of who’s found the experience of the Royal Commission to be an opportunity, when they might not have felt they could have had a voice before.” While some have found it helpful, Nicolau states there may be a risk of “compassion fatigue” in the broader community, which is counter-productive. “There is the risk that the community will become weary of these horror stories coming out of the Commission,” Nicolau states. “By the time it ends, the Commission will have gone for about four years, and there are so many articles about it in the papers. There might be a point where the community goes ‘enough’ and shuts down from it, and they just don’t want to hear anymore, which worries me a little bit. Because the work we need to do to improve and to ensure that children don’t get harmed this way again will only be properly carried out if the community keeps the issue alive and in mind.” Throughout the duration of the Royal Commission, Nicolau and Grainger say the response to the training carried out by ACT Group for supporters and carers of the victims has been overwhelmingly positive. “Our presentations and materials have been
very well-received,” Nicolau says. “But how it will influence the future… well, time will tell. I think we’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg in terms of what kind of support people need, in terms of skills, capacity and knowledge in this area. “We can build up knowledge as much as we want during the training, but if it’s not supported after the Royal Commission, what happens to those carers, supporters and survivors who need continued support? What happens to those professionals, when they need assistance to continue this work? We would hope and encourage organisations to continue work in this area.” Nicolau says ACT Group is committed to continuing the work, should agencies come to them directly. “We are doing work with New South Wales agencies in this area, doing reflective sessions via video conference for them, and there are other agencies who may like to continue in this way also,” Nicolau says. Another positive evident through ACT Group training, Grainger says, is that through meeting each other at the training sessions, carers, supporters and even survivors have been able to build a support network with each other, which they will be able to continue among themselves beyond the training sessions. “We’ve been able to carry out training in areas that are quite isolated, where it’s rare that people can get together in some way to discuss these experiences and issues – places like Berry, Whyalla, Port Augusta, Port Pirie, Broken Hill,” Grainger says. “So they can build a bit of a support network by attending and meeting people in similar situations.” Both Nicolau and Grainger state that it is important that attendees are committed to continuing the work beyond their workshop attendance. “There are lots of important concepts and pieces of information for people to take away on the day, but the most important thing we hope attendees will take away from training is the ‘growing flower’ concept,” Grainger says. “We
talk about these sessions often as being about ‘seed planting’. And for attendees to get the most out of the session, it’s about following up on and applying things to daily work and taking things from there. So I always try to give people followup references – recommended further reading, places to get further information, where they can understand things at a more advanced level and which will help them retain their training.” “As Nick says, we both see ourselves as seedplanters,” Nicolau says. “These professionals and non-professionals working with survivors of child abuse have got to be ‘gardeners’ in a sense, taking responsibility after training to nurture the seed that’s been planted by engaging in further training, reflective sessions, reading, study and from experience.” “The fact is, training is just the beginning; it’s only worthwhile if you do something with it afterwards. And that is what we hope our training attendees will continue to do.” —Lauren Bruce Communications Consultant, ACT Group
O c t o b e r — D e c e m b e r, 2 0 1 5
“The fact is, training is just the beginning; it’s only worthwhile if you do something with it afterwards. And that is what we hope our training attendees will continue to do.”
05 — 12
ACTUAL—
In Tracks to Healing we’ll be yarning about: • The nature of trauma experienced by Aboriginal children, families and communities • Aboriginal kinship work and its implications for carers of Aboriginal children • The impacts of trauma on the cultural/spiritual, psychological, and physiological well being of Aboriginal children • Reading the ‘signs’ of trauma - how are healthy attachments impacted by trauma • Easing the impact of trauma • Approaches to healthier attachments • Caring for ourselves when children are distressed
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ACT Group Training — Tracks to Healing Professionals SNAICC with ACT Group Parkville, VIC
TRAINING CALENDAR
October
07
12
—
October
14
10
08
O c t o b e r — D e c e m b e r, 2 0 1 5
Mad, Bad or Sad? A Pathway to Healing — Carers & Professionals The Salvation Army Leongatha, VIC
Seeing, Thinking, Doing — Carers Illawarra Aboriginal Corporation Wollongong, NSW
Seeing, Thinking, Doing — Professionals Illawarra Aboriginal Corporation Wollongong, NSW
EXTERNAL EVENTS
21
ACT Group Training — The Truth About Lying: Facts to Help you Deal with Fiction Professionals WEBINAR
26 | 28
15
November
08 | 11
07 | 08
Mad, Bad or Sad? A Pathway to Healing — 18th Biennial International Foster Care Conference: Tell Someone Who Cares Carers & Professionals Sydney, NSW
Tactful Approaches to Care — 18th Biennial International Foster Care Carers Burrun Dalai Aboriginal Corporation Taree, Tamworth, Kempsey, Armidale, NSW
7th Australian Rural & Remote Mental Health Symposium — Carers & Professionals Creswick, VIC
Family Violence and Impact on Children Annual Symposium of Association of Child and Family Development — Professionals University of Melbourne Hawthorn, VIC
ACTUAL—
Manga’s Story
Abuse at the hands of people working in care has been rife throughout history, and ironically and sadly, there are so many accounts of abuse that we often forget the individuals who have suffered at the hands of it. As many accounts of child abuse find their way out into the public during the proceeds of the Royal Commission of institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, we run the risk of issue fatigue. Separate experiences can blur into each other as, one after the other, individuals, groups and organisations tell their stories. One such individual, Manga, is an 18 year old young man who has had terrible experiences while in care with his younger brother. Manga’s story is the kind that brings you back to the center of the issues with authorities that have been allowed to continue to conduct themselves poorly, and not in the interests of the children they are responsible for. Stories like Manga’s remind us that these are real people, young people, who continue to have negative experiences in care that will affect them for the rest of their lives.
“My parents were unfit to look after me and my brother,” Manga says. “One’s in jail at the moment. I didn’t want contact as I got older. I know what they’re about, so…” Manga was put into care when he was five and his brother was four due to his parents being engaged with drug and alcohol abuse. Given he was so young, and was in care for such a long time, he became used to the instability and the foreignness of it all. But that didn’t stop it from being a scary place to be for a child. “It was frightening, I think. Because we were away from our parents, our family and stuff. You know, they tried to make it a home, but it was never going to be a home. There were just groups of people coming in and out, all the time. I got used to the constant change, as I got older.” As Manga tells me about his time in care, it becomes very apparent that although he is open about his experiences, they aren’t easy for him to talk about. Although he is speaking from experiences that he may not be able to recall in their entirety due to his young age at the time of their occurrence, as his story unfolds, more and more it is reinforced that residential care is not a settled, positive place conducive to young peoples’ development. According to Manga, it is in fact quite the opposite, with tales of not just neglect, but abuse. “It wasn’t just the instability that was frightening. There was heaps of stuff. There was many cases where me and my brother got abused and assaulted and stuff like that, by workers there so yeah,” Manga says. Manga says it was routine abuse. “It happened quite often in this one place. We were there for two or three years. That’s a fairly long time for that to keep happening so yeah. It was just those houses in general. They weren’t that organised.” Manga says the abuse was physical, and sometimes sexual, to himself, his brother and to
other children in the residential care property. He says he saw it happening many times. “It was bad. There were a few workers we knew to stay away from, and you know, it was just… mmm. And we just never said anything, because we didn’t understand. We thought we were probably just being naughty. But naughty in that we’d go get some ice cream and yeah, get hit for that, so…” Beyond the physical abuse, Manga also suffered mental abuse. He says he remembers being locked in his room for an extended period of time. “There are two workers that really stand out in my mind. I really want to hurt them… or just confront them and ask, “Why?” Manga says. “No one really had the guts to stand up to them. I don’t even know where their mentality was to hit kids. Especially where there were kids that were 6, 7, 16, 17, you know. Even the older kids, they didn’t stand up at all. It was happening all the time and no one was doing it in secret. It was horrific how they would do that. “Like I remember… I’ll give you one scenario. I was locked in my room for about a month and they fed me just baked beans and stuff… yeah, when I woke up. And… they wouldn’t let me out of the house. And so this one time I pushed in the window, because they were grabbing at me, and the window smashed and I tried to jump out. “I was in there a long time. I remember just waking up in the morning and just couldn’t go outside, because they could deadlock it from the outside. And then I couldn’t get out of the way, so I was just sitting there, you know, just waiting for someone to come.” Manga says that when he and his brother eventually left residential care and lived with his foster carer Scott, things got better for them. “It was a much better experience. My foster carer Scott, he also used to talk to us and you
know, just kind of help us through. There was this destruction… especially my brother, where he just flipped out all the time. He got angry. But he had a reason [to].” Manga says his brother and himself continue to talk about the issues they faced, but that his brother is having difficulty developing as a person as a result of their experiences. “My brother [continues to] suffer more now, which makes me angry,” Manga says. “We’ve grown apart, because we were that close that, we kind of felt the same thing all the time. So us being apart, it’s good for us. We can see that, and we can see that we’re different people. “But we still talk all the time about all the things that used to happen and that’s the way I can kind of get myself onto a ‘cool’ level, just understanding with my brother, making sure what happened actually happened, the way [we think] it happened as well. It’s in broken pieces [in my understanding]. “I try to make myself forget about most of the things, because you know, in every day life, it doesn’t need to be there. If I can come to understand it, you know, beautiful. I can put it in a box and not think about it all the time.” Despite everything he’s been through, Manga has finished school and is now completing a course in real estate, is living in an apartment with a housemate and driving his own car. He says that despite some initial challenges becoming independent, he’s happy with where he is now. “My foster carer went over to Queensland and I think he’s gonna stay there. He had seasonal depression or something. My brother was young enough to go back into foster care but I was going to have to go back into residential care and I just couldn’t do it. It would’ve set me back a hundred
miles. So I was thrown in the deep end, and I was a bit cut up about [what happened with Scott] for awhile.” But Manga says that now, he’s happy to have his indep endence. “I had to learn [to be independent] by myself. And I still don’t know about most things, but I’ll learn about them,” Manga says. “I’ve got grounding at my house… comfort. This is the first time I’ve had something for myself.” Manga doesn’t talk much about his parents, but he says that seeing what happened to them, along with his relationship with his uncle, has propelled him forward. “I’d always see my parents doing stuff, and I had my uncle as well just to tell me, you know, to always stay away from [drug and alcohol abuse],” Manga says. “Seeing them break down and crumble… it just didn’t make sense to me. And my uncle went through similar things, you know, that stuff with drugs. But he [stepped away from it] and showed me how he kinda did it. “I could’ve just abused drugs and gone down that road, took that step off into no man’s land. It could’ve been quite easy for me. But if you sit there and dwell, you know, there’s no outcome from it. There’s no positivity. And that’s why I’m positive these days, or I try to be. And I try to encourage others, which makes me more encouraged. A lot more.” Manga says that he is fine after his past experiences as a child/young person. However, the effects of his time in residential care have evidently left their mark on his psyche. “It hasn’t really affected me mentally. Emotionally, sometimes. So it can bring back a lot of hatred and stuff towards authority, when people tell me I can’t do something,” Manga
says. “But really, I’ve got a cool mindset I think. “But you know, [it wasn’t] normal. As much as they say, oh in care we try to make it normal. It can never be normal. It’s just… you’re confused all the time. And it still leaves me confused. Every day. “But positivity stuck to me. That baggage, it was on me for a long time, and I was doing some stuff that I don’t regret but you know, I just did, and to pick myself up was a big step. “[My experience in care] definitely built a little bit of character. In me. But in a different way, I have a lot of patience and… I don’t know, I’ve kind of always had that real confident attitude, so through life, it didn’t really affect me until I had some alone time, you know. And that was only recently, like a year ago. “And it still does affect me, and you can’t ever get away from it. It’s like, information that just stays in the back of my head and it shows up at random times; but I’ve made myself deal with it because at the end of the day, it doesn’t change the person I am today. It happened, but I can’t do anything about it.” —Lauren Bruce Communications Consultant, ACT Group
O c t o b e r — D e c e m b e r, 2 0 1 5
“But positivity stuck to me. That baggage, it was on me for a long time, and I was doing some stuff that I don’t regret but you know, I just did, and to pick myself up was a big step.”
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“Therapy dogs can assist people who are in therapy to better engage in the treatment process”.
Matilda the Therapy Dog
ACTUAL—
There has been a new addition to the team here at ACT Group: Matilda the Therapy Dog (although strictly speaking, we should say Therapy Pup in Training)! Matilda is a “groodle” – a golden retriever crossed with a poodle – who will be trained to be ACT Group’s official Therapy Dog in the months and years to come. While she’s only a 5-month-old pup at the moment, Matilda comes to work each day at ACT Group. She loves being around adults and children, and The ACT Group Team and our clients love having her in the office! Recently, Matilda went on her first mission: to assist in helping a young person get out of bed for the day. Reports back from the field are that she was a big success, with the young person first saying, “not interested” to getting up and changed and playing fetch. Matilda returned to the office and plonked down on her bed for a sleep after a big day. What is a therapy dog? Therapy dogs can bring affection, comfort and happiness. They are used in many different situations, including assisting in therapy for those who have experienced childhood trauma. Contact with a therapy dog can assist in the improvement of a person or patient’s welfare. Spending time with animals can have an incredible affect on humans and their wellbeing. Therapy dogs can assist people who are in therapy to better engage in the treatment process.
How Therapy Dogs can assist in the healing process There are many different ways dogs can be used in therapy. At ACT, Matilda will be helping our clients with a number therapeutic elements including the improvement of verbal and physical interactions, motor skills, mobility, balance, mental skills, anxiety, depression and trust. Interaction with therapy dogs has been shown to lower anxiety of those being treated, and motivate participation. In therapy carried out by organisations such as the Australian Childhood Trauma Group, Matilda may be seen by clients as a friend, which will help present a safe atmosphere for them to undergo therapeutic care. How will Matilda become a therapy dog? There are two major components to a dog becoming a therapy dog: Socialisation, and Training. During socialisation, Matilda will be exposed to lots of different people and animals to help her become comfortable in all social situations without acting out. This is the first part of the development process and is happening now, while Matilda is a puppy. While this is important to set up in the initial stages of her development, good social behavior will be encouraged and rewarded throughout her life. The next stage is formal training, where Matilda will learn how to be a Therapy Dog. This is also an important stage for us, in how we manage Matilda during the animal assisted therapy process. Matilda has started her education at The Kintala Club, where she will be learning how to behave around adults, children and animals of all kinds. This socialisation will be followed by her formal Animal Assisted Therapy training early next year. — Lauren Bruce Communications Consultant, ACT Group
Artist Biography: Raku Pitt
From the remote South Coast of WA, trained in Perth and Hobart and now Melbourne-based, artist Raku Pitt’s primary creative interest is in the intersecting mappings of personal and natural histories. Pitt’s art practice has traversed many media and approaches along the way, from sculpture and printmaking to painting and shadowstorytelling. He has also worked for many years as a community arts facilitator, especially in the field of mental heath, and also as an outdoor leader and environmental educator.
As the respected book designer Chip Kidd stated, “The best solution can usually be found in the best definition of the problem itself”. In a world full of books, how do you innovate to appeal to a new audience? You reframe the challenge through a new lens. For over a year, we have been forward in our vision of problem solving at ACT Group. We have adopted new design principles and frameworks and been inspired by ideas firsthand from industry professionals, workers and young people alike to allow us greater and more diverse perspectives. We have ventured into the exciting unknown, exploring solutions to even the biggest challenges the sector presents us. All this has been done through drawing on collective years of expertise and knowledge, along with a Design Thinking framework. The term “Design Thinking” was first coined in the 90s when design firms turned their attention to creating outcomes for the “end user” - the person who would be affected as the end result. This was revolutionary at a time when the rest of the creative world were using big budgets to please and prioritise the clients who created the brief. At ACT Group, we adopted the concept of Design Thinking, beginning to look at what will benefit the young person directly, using new and innovative ways to spark the healing process. During this time, we have run multiple workshops that adhere to a strong framework developed
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Problem solving through a new lens
by the Silicon Valley firm Future. Future have been using this workshop process for problem solving for years in both corporate and notfor-profit environments, creating ingenious solutions in both these worlds. The foundation of this process is the belief that everyone is born ingenious; people just need the framework and environment to harness this creativity. We build on these practices by reframing the challenge early on in the process; and by doing this, we get all participants to engage in the challenge more personally. This helps find the best definition of the challenge, and allows participants to examine the challenge on a deeper level. One of the workshops, for example, began with the question, ‘How might we provide a healing and learning experience for children and young people living in residential care?’ This evolved quickly into, “How might we provide a safe and welcoming experience for children and young people so that they create a sense of belonging and thrive within themselves and the community?”. When we look at the home I forever hear the immortal voice of Darryl Kerrigan: “A man’s home is his castle.” This rings true when we look at out-of-home-care - when we start to shift the challenge from providing a roof over a young person’s head as simply shelter, to shifting the thinking from what a house is to what a house could forever represent: a place to feel safe, supported, to heal and to grow. — Keir Vaughan Innovation & Design Consultant ACT Group
“The best solution can usually be found in the best definition of the problem itself”.
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Improving outcomes for young people. wesley.org.au
Seeking articles for ACTUAL from young people, workers, carers and the broader community to showcase the diverse and amazing work undertaken in support of infants, children, young people and adults who are healing from childhood trauma. Please contact: info@theactgroup.com.au theactgroup.com.au
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