❓ Ms. Mettam asks about the recording and prevalence of FASD diagnoses among children in the Department of Communities' care. The Minister's response indicates data is not centrally collected and would require significant resources to compile.
AnsweredQoN 920Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
(1) Can the Minister outline what mechanisms and/or processes are in place for recording the number of children in the Department's care, either with family carers or foster carers, who have been diagnosed with Foetal alcohol Syndrome (FASD)? (2) If yes to (1), can the Minister please provide statistics for the number of children in the Department's care who have been diagnosed with FASD in each of the following years: (a) 2018-2019; (b) 2019-2020; (c) 2020-2021; (d) 2021-2022; and (e) 2022-2023?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
30 November 2023
Responded by
Minister for Child Protection
Response time
14 days
1-2 The Department of Communities (Communities) advises:
Communities engages specialist assessment, diagnosis and intervention services for children in out-of-home care through both the public and private sectors. Health care planning is reviewed as part of the care planning process. Children in out-of-home care have an initial medical assessment followed by a more comprehensive health and development assessment, which is then carried out on an annual basis. Where children in out-of-home care have additional assessment needs, these are arranged as required.
If a child is diagnosed with FASD, the child’s support needs are incorporated into their care planning, which includes relevant and appropriate actions required by carers, case managers and referrals to appropriate support services. This is recorded on the child’s individual case file.
Significant resources would be required to manually review individual case files which is not considered a reasonable use of resources.
Communities engages specialist assessment, diagnosis and intervention services for children in out-of-home care through both the public and private sectors. Health care planning is reviewed as part of the care planning process. Children in out-of-home care have an initial medical assessment followed by a more comprehensive health and development assessment, which is then carried out on an annual basis. Where children in out-of-home care have additional assessment needs, these are arranged as required.
If a child is diagnosed with FASD, the child’s support needs are incorporated into their care planning, which includes relevant and appropriate actions required by carers, case managers and referrals to appropriate support services. This is recorded on the child’s individual case file.
Significant resources would be required to manually review individual case files which is not considered a reasonable use of resources.
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