- Companies profit from housing kids in motels
- The Australian
- 13/03/2009 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: The Rooster ( 258 articles in 2009 )
CHILD-SAFETY advocates have accused the Bligh Government of abandoning abused children to a life of dysfunction by allowing them to be left in hotel rooms and caravan parks, watched over by private companies that profit from their care.
Freedom of Information documents obtained by The Australian reveal that some private companies are paid more than $30,000 a month per child to care for damaged children in Queensland, housing them in run-down motel rooms and caravan parks.
Emeritus professor of child development at the University of South Australian, Freda Briggs, said it was a national emergency that state governments were paying private companies to deal with abandoned children.
"These hotel rooms often have no place for these children to play, often no kitchen so they eat takeaway all the time," she said.
"These children are some of the most damaged and vulnerable in Australia. Our response is to leave them in hotel rooms, with no continuity of care.
"We've known since 1953 the kind of damage this will do. It is mind-boggling governments would continue with these policies."
Just over a year ago, The Australian reported the case of "David", a 17-year-old Aboriginal boy who had been through 63 welfare placements since 1999, been sexually abused by his white father and severely neglected by his Aboriginal mother.
He suffers from schizophrenia and hadn't been to school for almost a decade and has attempted suicide three times -- the first attempt at age nine -- yet spent most of his time watching television and playing video games in a dingy, curtained hotel room.
Last year, Alternate Care's managing director Peter Marino said his company made only a small commission on the $720 a day it charged Queensland's Department of Child Safety to care for David.
An FOI request by The Australian reveals that the department authorised the Cairns-based company to be paid $128,075 to care for the child between September 21, 2007 and January 17 last year, a cost of about $1076 a day.
In many such cases, the children are cared for by a revolving door of poorly qualified workers who are paid $20 an hour to sit with the children.
Professor Briggs said she knew of babies only weeks old who had been left in motel rooms by authorities.
"The problem has been there's been a reduction in the number of foster carers and an increase in children needing care," she said.
"The department is often authoritarian, foster carers don't trust the department, so there's been a reduction in the number of people willing to do it."
Freedom of Information documents obtained by The Australian reveal that some private companies are paid more than $30,000 a month per child to care for damaged children in Queensland, housing them in run-down motel rooms and caravan parks.
Emeritus professor of child development at the University of South Australian, Freda Briggs, said it was a national emergency that state governments were paying private companies to deal with abandoned children.
"These hotel rooms often have no place for these children to play, often no kitchen so they eat takeaway all the time," she said.
"These children are some of the most damaged and vulnerable in Australia. Our response is to leave them in hotel rooms, with no continuity of care.
"We've known since 1953 the kind of damage this will do. It is mind-boggling governments would continue with these policies."
Just over a year ago, The Australian reported the case of "David", a 17-year-old Aboriginal boy who had been through 63 welfare placements since 1999, been sexually abused by his white father and severely neglected by his Aboriginal mother.
He suffers from schizophrenia and hadn't been to school for almost a decade and has attempted suicide three times -- the first attempt at age nine -- yet spent most of his time watching television and playing video games in a dingy, curtained hotel room.
Last year, Alternate Care's managing director Peter Marino said his company made only a small commission on the $720 a day it charged Queensland's Department of Child Safety to care for David.
An FOI request by The Australian reveals that the department authorised the Cairns-based company to be paid $128,075 to care for the child between September 21, 2007 and January 17 last year, a cost of about $1076 a day.
In many such cases, the children are cared for by a revolving door of poorly qualified workers who are paid $20 an hour to sit with the children.
Professor Briggs said she knew of babies only weeks old who had been left in motel rooms by authorities.
"The problem has been there's been a reduction in the number of foster carers and an increase in children needing care," she said.
"The department is often authoritarian, foster carers don't trust the department, so there's been a reduction in the number of people willing to do it."
Source: https://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25179298-5006786,00.html
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