New Caring Life App for Foster Carers

Allambi Care is pleased to announce that in the coming weeks our Foster carers will be provided with access to a new life story work online platform and App.

Caring Life will provide Foster carers with a safe and secure way to upload and share photos, videos, awards, certificates, artworks and important documentation with the children they care for.

The app allows young people to access their content and where appropriate add to it themselves.

Caring Life is not a social media platform, it is a “Dropbox” style system that allows children and young people to be able to see their life memories now and into the future.

Allambi will cover the cost for each child and their Foster Carers as we recognise the significance of providing lifelong access to individual life story work.

For more information please click on this link or speak with your Case Worker.

Caring Life Official Website - https://about.caringlife.com/

Caring Life Introduction Video - https://youtu.be/vXIRPGUMDag

Information for carers HERE

Face-to-face Training

We recently sent emails about the return of Face-to-face Ongoing Training! Keep Wednesday May 26^th free for training on:

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)

9.30am to 1.30pm in the Auditorium.

Presented by Seher Suhail (BCBA, MSc Psych) and Trisha Hanrahan (B.PsychSc)

Morning tea and lunch provided

What is ABA? Applied Behaviour Analysis is founded in research and science. It is one of the most effective approach for kids with autism in particular but also for kids without.

ABA empowers you by demonstrating that the variables responsible for a person’s behaviour are found in the environment and that if we change the environment, we can change behaviour. Therefore your responses can influence the young person’s behaviour, in turn effecting his/ her learning and growth.

How can ABA help you?

• Help Carers to identify causes of behaviour and how to effectively support this
• Encourage children and young people to communicate their needs in appropriate ways
• Provide children and young people with strategies to express or regulate their emotions
• Help in Identifying and implementing environmental adaptations to support the child
• Reducing aggression and other disruptive behaviour
• Teaching appropriate replacement behaviours
• Increasing compliance and following instructions
  
  

Ongoing training will not be held every month. Currently there will be face-to-face training in May, July (Fun Day), September and December (Christmas party). In the months between, there will be topics uploaded to the Online Training platform for Carers to access and learn from. To be eligible to go into the draw for a $50 gift card each month, you will have to complete the training module for that month within the month it was uploaded. The winner will be randomly picked from the draw and notified. As easy as that!

Access training here:  LMS Sign In (allambicare.org.au)

Cyberbullying is Never OK

Cyberbullying hurts people. It’s never cool, funny or OK.

Telling someone is always the best thing to do about cyberbullying.

It's normal to fell upset, angry and confused. Use the G.E.T.R.I.D. steps to stop cyberbullying.

G.E.T.R.I.D. of cyberbullying: first steps

Block or delete the person doing the cyberbullying. This can stop your child getting offensive content. If the cyberbullying is happening through text messages or phone calls, you can ask the service provider to monitor the calls or texts or block the number. If necessary, the service provider can contact the sender because mobile phone holders breach their contracts if they use their phones to bully. If necessary, you can change the phone number.

Ensure you keep evidence of the bullying. Save and print any bullying messages. Save text messages. The best way to do this is to take screenshots.

Tell a trusted adult or friend. If your child or young person shares feelings with a carer, parent, older sibling, relative, teacher or close friend as soon as possible, it’ll help them feel less isolated.

G.E.T.R.I.D. of cyberbullying: next steps

Report abuse. If the messages are threatening, talk to the local police. You can usually report cyberbullying to web administrators by clicking on a ‘report abuse’ link on a website. The website will remove the offensive content, but this can take time. If the material isn’t removed in 48 hours, you can lodge a complaint through the Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner.

If your child or young person has been threatened, they should also report it to the local police. If your child or young person is in immediate danger, they, or you, should call 000.

There could be consequences for the person doing the cyberbullying if you report the abuse.

It’s a good idea for you and your child to look together at the social media sites he uses to make sure he knows how to report abuse.

Initiate control. To break the cyberbullying cycle, choose not to respond aggressively or seek revenge. If your child takes control of the cyberbullying situation, she can feel safer and break the cycle. A big part of taking control is reporting the abuse and also not retaliating or responding aggressively to it. In fact, it’s best for your child not to engage with the person who is doing the cyberbullying at all.

Responding to the person doing the cyberbullying can make things worse because it can make the person who is cyberbullying feel more powerful.

Delete the bullying message or post after you’ve saved evidence of the cyber bullying. Don’t forward it, repost it, retweet it or send it to other people in any way because they might forward it too.

How do I know if my child or young person is being cyberbullied?

Watch for changes in your child or young person’s school and social life, technology use, emotions and behaviour.

You know your child or young person and how they usually behave, even if you find it hard to keep up with the technologies that are being used and the different ways that cyberbullying can happen. This means you are in a good position to notice any concerning changes in your child or young person. These are some of the changes that may occur.

School and Social life:

• School refusal
• Starts to get lower marks than usual
• Doesn’t want to see friends
• Doesn’t want to take part in their usual sports and other activities
• Avoids group gatherings
  
  

Technology use:

• Is upset during or after using the internet
• Spends much longer than usual online, or stops using the computer or phone
• Stops what they’re doing on the computer if you walk past
  
  

Emotions and Behaviours:

• Are more moody than usual
• Show obvious changes in behaviours
• Get unusually angry at home
• Have trouble sleeping
• Have no appetite
• Feel sick or complain of frequent headaches or stomach aches
  
  

For further information search cyberbullying at www.raisingchildren.net.au 

We're Ready to Take Your Calls!

The On Call team works nights and weekends to support carers in crisis with their child or young person.

Please REMEMBER TO CONTACT THE ON CALL TEAM FROM 5PM TO 8.30AM MONDAY TO FRIDAY AND ON WEEKENDS. Calls to your Case Worker can be made Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm.

Meet Kim Conroy

Case Worker - Fostering & Permanency

Favourite Food: my husband's curry prawns would be top of the list.

To relax I: jump on the back of our motorbike with my hubby and go for a ride, no destination needed.

Currently listening to: podcasts on trauma and its effects on our young people.

Best thing about my job is: so many things, my job just doesn’t feel like work. I feel a sense of honour to be in the lives of these young people, and it gives me great pleasure to support and guide them towards living the best life possible.

My Forever Family Upcoming Training

May 4 – 10am Webinar; Understanding the Reportable Conduct Processes

Reportable conduct is a behaviour undertaken by a Carer that goes against the carer code of conduct and places a child at risk of harm.

May 5 – 7.30pm to 8.30pm Evening Webinar; Top Tips for responding to disclosures.

Supporting a child who has disclosed abuse can be challenging and it can feel difficult to know how to respond or what actions to take after the initial conversation.

May 11 – 10am Webinar; Understanding the impacts of trauma on memory

Learn how trauma impacts on the brain with particular focus on the function of memory.

May 18 – 10am Webinar; What is food hoarding? How do I manage it?

While studies into Food Maintenance Syndrome are still developing, this webinar aims to provide a foundation of management by looking at what it is, how it develops, attachment links, brain impacts, health repercussions and management strategies.

May 19 -7.30pm to 8.30pm Webinar; Top tips for therapeutic parenting

This webinar explores what developmental trauma is, how it effects behaviour and how therapeutic parenting aids children in care.

May 25 – 10am Webinar; Teenagers: preparing to leave your care

Join us as we outline some supports and talk through the challenges that lie ahead for young people after they've left care and decisions are now their own.

June 1 – 10am Webinar; Teenagers after they’ve left your care

Join us as we outline some supports and talk through the challenges that lie ahead for young people after they've left care and decisions are now their own.

For MFF membership and to participate in these events go to: http://www.myforeverfamily.org.au/events