Module 7: Support, Advocacy and Self Care

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• Module 7 Support, Advocacy and Self Care

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Module 7 Support, Advocacy and Self Care

• Learning Outcomes
• 1. Foster carers are able to identify their
  support needs
• 2. Foster carers have a range of skills able to
  be used to seek out the supply of supports
• 3. Foster carers feel confident in requesting
  support
• 4. Foster carers understand the difference and
  links between support and advocacy
• 5. Foster carers know where to seek assistance
  and advocacy for themselves and the children and
  young people for whom they care

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• 6. Foster carers are aware of the role of Foster
  Care Queensland and the FCQ FAST delegates
• 7. Foster carers know who the Commission for
  Children and Young People and Child Guardian and
  the Children Services Tribunal are, what role
  they play and how to access them
• 8. Foster carers are able to identify their own
  stressors
• 9. Foster carers are able to apply a range of
  effective mechanisms to decrease or manage their
  stress and
• 10. Foster carers are able to acknowledge the
  need for self care and identify practical ways of
  caring for themselves.

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Module 7 Support, Advocacy and Self Care
Content 1. What is support? 2. What is
advocacy? 3. What is self care and why is it
important?
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What is support?
The Oxford dictionary describes support as
carry weight of, prop up, keep from falling or
sinking, enable to last out, give strength to,
encourage, endure, supply with necessaries, lend
assistance to, back up, encourage.

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Supporting Strong Parenting in the Australian
Foster Care System

• Fostering can only ever be one part of a joint
  enterprise of caring for children and young
  people in need of out-of-home provision. The
  state has ultimate responsibility for many of the
  children who are in this position, and engages
  foster parents, because in currently accepted
  wisdom this is the preferred means of meeting
  this community responsibility.
• But foster carers and the foster care system is
  vulnerable at many points. The success of foster
  care as a method for providing protection and
  care for children and young people deprived of,
  or denied, a natural family in which to develop,
  depends primarily and largely on the quality of
  the foster relationship.

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(cont.)

• This in turn depends on, firstly, the calibre
  and expertise of the fostering family, and
  secondly, the quality and effectiveness of the
  surrounding and supporting system.
• In a good practice foster care system, then,
  there will be both good practice at the family or
  foster carer level, and there will be good
  practice in the supporting structures put in
  place to assist the foster family. Foster care
  is thus a joint activity between foster families,
  government(s) and community structures.
• Published by the Australian Foster Care
  Association

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Foster Carer Interpretations of Support

• emotional support
• physical and practical support
• financial support
• professional development
• task-focused problem-solving support
• respite care
• community support
• social support

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• ASK for support
• EXPECT to need and receive support
• ACCEPT support offered

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Good advocacy should

• be about working in partnership
• involve listening communicating with
• ensure all parties are on equal levels
• empower individuals through information, support
  and knowledge
• address inequity
• assist in sorting through options for resolution
• create independence through empowering
• mediation and negotiation
• assist in identifying accountability and
  responsibility

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• Advocacy and support for foster carers is NOT
  about defending everything, right or wrong, that
  the carer has done, it IS about ensuring that the
  foster carer has a clear understanding of
  everything that is being discussed, has every
  opportunity to fully participate in discussions
  and has their right to a fair and just process
  recognised.

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Types of Advocacy

• INDIVIDUAL ADVOCACY
• to seek a solution with and for people regarding
  their particular problems or needs, so as to
  enhance their situation.
• SYSTEMIC OR GROUP ADVOCACY
• to influence the 'system' (e.g. the policies and
  procedures of agencies/governments) to change in
  response to foster carers needs and the needs of
  children and young people in care.
• SELF ADVOCACY
• is about foster carers speaking up for
  themselves and developing or maintaining the
  personal skills and self-confidence necessary to
  enable them to represent their own interests.

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Foster Carer Advocacy

• Foster carers can be seen sometimes as being in
  a disadvantaged group. This disadvantage may
  occur due to a number of reasons-
• lack of support
• inability to obtain needed services/assistance
• emotional and physical stress
• financial pressures
• lack of time to fit 'everything' in!!
• community attitudes, perceptions misconceptions

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• Possibly one of the biggest 'disadvantages' for
  foster carers is the feeling of sometimes being
  on the receiving end.
• This puts someone else in the position of power,
  and often in the position of control over your
  situation.
• This fact is why advocacy is important, as it
  assists balance the power ratio.

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What is FAST?

• FAST stands for Fostering Advocacy Support
  Team and is a team of specially trained local
  foster carers who have volunteered to provide
  support and advice and advocate on behalf of
  other foster carers.
• There is a FAST delegate for each Child Safety
  Service Centre. In some areas more than one FAST
  delegate has been selected.
• The FAST delegate provides a local avenue for
  foster carer to receive advice, support and/or
  advocacy on individual matters

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Role of the FAST delegate

• Provides a local avenue for foster carers to
  receive advice, support and/or advocacy on
  individual issues
• Advocates for groups of foster carers on key
  issues
• Co-ordinates feedback on documents policy
  issues
• Communicates policy procedural information

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The FAST delegates role in relation to an
individual carer is to

• Assist the carer to identify the key issues and
  the outcomes they would like to see happen
• Provide information and advice
• Encourage the carer to address the issue at the
  local level in the first instance (with the CSO
  or worker involved or with the local decision
  maker)
• Support the carer to approach the next level
  (Team Leader/Manager or Zonal Director) if
  unsuccessful in resolving matter at first level

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• FAST delegates can support and advocate for carer
  in meetings, teleconferences etc if requested by
  the carer
• Assist the carer to prepare written
  correspondence
• Provide advice about internal and external appeal
  options
• At any stage urgent matters can be dealt with at
  a senior level without first having passed
  through lower levels.
• Where appropriate may encourage carers to refer
  matters directly to the Childrens Services
  Tribunal, Commission for Children and Young
  People and Child Guardian, CMC, or Ombudsman

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A word about Stress

• Stress is created when the forces in the outside
  world interact with us as individuals.
• Most activity to reduce stress is based on the
  assumption that stress is inevitably bad for us.
  But too little as well as too much challenge,
  stimulation and change can be a threat to health.
  
• The Chinese word for Crisis has two characters
  one means danger and the other opportunity
• Stress is ok, distress is not
• Planning our lives so that stress is not
  everywhere is one of the most effective ways of
  dealing with stress
• Ways of dealing with distress are individual and
  differ from person to person and from time to
  time

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Self Esteem

• Words
• Pictures
• Emotions

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Self Talk Cycle
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• There are three basic principles that you need
  to look at
• I am as I think
• I move towards and become like that which I think
  about
• My present thoughts determine my future

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• When problems come up in your life, recognise
  them then ask what would it look like without
  the problem? Tell yourself how you want it to
  be. If the problem is significant you may wish
  to go through the following process of
  clarification
• Write down exactly what you believe the main
  problem to be
• Write down all possible solutions, even the bad
  or outrageous ones
• Think about each solution in practical terms
• Choose the most practical solution
• Plan how you will carry that solution out
• DO IT!

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In summary

• You achieve your self esteem through
• Being good at something
• Controlling your self talk
• Self talk is controlled by
• Accept compliments graciously
• Do not rely on other peoples approval to
  function
• Eliminate sarcasm, criticism, and belittling of
  yourself and others and do not accept it from
  others
• Hear other peoples opinions but know that it is
  an opinion only
• Think positive, uplifting thoughts
• Be constructive, positive and uplifting in your
  self talk
• Know that you are worthy and wear it well