Breaking: Almost as many children in residential care in Qld as rest of country combined

Alternate ABC Title – Queensland Commission of Inquiry makes 52 recommendations to state government

This is not a new problem. Well over a decade ago I authored a paper from the AIHW on YPIRAC, which stands for younger people in residential aged care. The reality is that the majority of these younger people need full time care due to traumatic brain injuries or other causes that require a high level of care really only deliverable by a hospital or other place setup to monitor the health of long term residents (for instance high care aged care facilities).

Unless the people referred to in this article are a dramatically new and different group than when I was engaged in the sector, then this is less a ‘labor vs liberal’ problem, and more a ‘number of beds’ problem.

Dunno what they plan to do, unless they can magic up thousands of carers who are willing to take on the most difficult of children.

From my experience working in Child Safety, these kids end up in residential care because there are not nearly enough carers and because the kids’ behaviours (trauma response) becomes unmanageable for the average carer and the little support they get from the Department.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the kids under 5 are just put into a hotel with youth workers instead of a residential so they can say “yup look how great we are doing”, which i guess is better in some ways but not really a great solution…