Australian Institute of Family Studies

Nearly 70% of Australian households include pets. For many of us, these animals are family, as much a part of our lives and equally loved as our human family members. While there is widespread awareness about the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on women and children, less is known about the links between violence against family animals and IPV.There is evidence that violence against family animals can be an indicator of frequent and severe patterns of IPV. Some perpetrators threaten or harm family pets to manipulate, punish or control their partner, leveraging the emotional connection many people have with their pets. In these situations, many victim-survivors will delay leaving, stay with, or return to perpetrators because they are scared for their pets’ safety.Victim-survivors of IPV who have family animals face unique challenges in seeking and accessing support. Although research suggests that human and animal victim-survivors recover and heal better when they can do so together, this is often not possible – largely due to a lack of animal-inclusive support services and crisis accommodation.Within the context of these systematic challenges, this webinar will explore practical ways that practitioners working in child and family services can strengthen support for human and animal victim-survivors. This webinar will help you:• understand the relationship between violence against family animals and intimate partner violence and the effects of this violence on human and animal victim-survivors• understand the emotional connection between people and family animals and the benefits of recovering and healing together• develop insight into the unique challenges that victim-survivors of IPV who have family animals may experience when trying to access support and strengthen the way you support these individuals.Presenters: Monique Dam - CEO of Lucy’s Project; Kylie Butler - Senior Research Officer in the Child and Family Evidence and Evaluation (CFEE) team at AIFS.

Many practitioners strive to support all families in ways that are culturally appropriate and sensitive. However, when practitioners work with children and families from a different culture than their own, they may receive questions or hear experiences that differ from the norms, knowledge or expectations of their own culture. In these situations, practitioners may feel uncertain about how to navigate these cultural differences.Ethical dilemmas can arise when practitioners’ own values or opinions around equity, fairness or parenting practices differ from those of the family they’re working with. For example, differences around the expected responsibilities appropriate for a child to take on.Practitioners may feel uncertain about how to best support the mental health and well-being of the child and their family while maintaining cultural respect, humility, and curiosity. Through self-reflection and improved cultural awareness, practitioners can avoid unintentionally imposing their own beliefs and expectations on families. This can reduce the risk of the child and their family feeling misunderstood or isolated from services.This webinar will help you: maintain humility and curiosity when cultural differences and ethical dilemmas arise in your work navigate conversations with children and families from cultures that are different from your own, particularly when cultural differences arise, so that you can maintain culturally sensitive practicereflect on and challenge your own assumptions, judgments, and biases when ethical dilemmas arise due to cultural differences.This webinar will interest practitioners who work in the child and family sector – such as psychologists, psychotherapists, counselors, nurses, teachers and support workers – who want to develop their confidence and cultural humility when working with culturally diverse children, parents, families and communities.This webinar is co-produced by CFCA at AIFS and Emerging Minds in a series focusing on children’s mental health. They are working together as part of the Emerging Minds: National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health, which is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care under the National Support for Child and Youth Mental Health Program.Presenters: Pshko Marden, Rhett McDonald, Hala Abdelnour and Amanda Kemperman.

Supporting infant and child mental health can be both extremely rewarding and challenging for practitioners working with families. Many different factors influence infant and toddler mental health, including their relationships, their community and the broader social context in which they live. While having limited social supports can contribute to poor mental health in children and their parents or carers, having a rich social support system, or a ‘village’, can promote mental health and wellbeing. This ‘village’ can include family members, friends and other trusted community members such as educators, community leaders, and healthcare providers. Practitioners can offer families more effective support by understanding their ‘village’ and what might be stopping families from reaching out for emotional or practical support. This webinar will discuss how to work collaboratively with families to engage with their ‘village’ and how this approach can influence infant and toddler mental health. Panellists will explore practice strategies that promote infant and toddler mental health and explore how asking questions about the family’s ‘village’ can help you better understand a family’s needs and strengths.

In Australia, over 45,000 children live in out-of-home care (OOHC). This webinar will outline practical ways to prioritise the voices of children in OOHC that can support their mental health and wellbeing.