A Message from the Children's Team.
Recently you would have received information from Strengthening Families in relation to the Marlborough Children’ s Team. Here is some additional information to assist you, when considering a referral. When considering a referral please think about whether the child/family:
It is appropriate to make direct referrals to Child, Youth and Family and/or Police, where there is risk of harm to the child which requires immediate steps to create safety; where there may be a need for Police to be involved in an investigation alongside Child Youth and Family; where there are situations of chronic or serious neglect, emotional or physical abuse that are already having a serious damaging effect on the child; where there are parents/caregivers who have already had a child or young person removed from their care (in these instances these should be assessed by CYF before any referral is made to the Children’s Team if appropriate). Below is a referral form for download. Please note that we encourage you to ring our office and talk to our team about a possible referral. We are also more than willing to come out and meet with you or the family to talk about the Children’s Team approach, and work through the referral form. When the referrer (or in some instances our staff) meets with the family seeking their consent to participate in the Children’s Team approach (including the sharing of agency information), at that stage the referrer will provide the family with the ‘Who We Are’ About Your Privacy in the Children’s Team, and Making a Complaint information. If you have any queries at all, please ring us at our office on (03) 5791072. Dr Lorraine Eade (Ngati Rarua, Ngati Toarangatira) Director| Marlborough Children’s Team – Nga Pukenga Tamariki 1/57 Seymour Street, Blenheim 7201| PO Box 682, Blenheim 7240 T: 64 3 984 7640 E:lorraine.eade@childrensactionplan.govt.nz M: 029 2012 441 
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ResourcesTo report or not to report? That is the question!
Katherine Hall Emma Donaldson Martyn Williamson Journal of Primary Health Care 9(4) 244-247 https://doi.org/10.1071/HC16064 Published: 5 September 2017 In New Zealand general practices, we come across adolescents who are sexually active. It is quite clear in New Zealand law that everyone (including minors) who has sexual connection with a young person below the age of 16 years is potentially liable for prosecution and imprisonment.1,2 In the UK, there is mandatory reporting of all sexually active children aged 13 years or less.3,4 Many people feel that every instance of under-age intercourse should be reported to the police; however, mandatory reporting can be counter-productive.3 It reduces attendance of adolescents at sexual health and family planning services, so children who may be at most risk may not present and thus not be identified.3,5 Mandatory reporting can criminalise essentially good people involved in consensual relationship, the harm of this being not insignificant to the individuals, their families, and the wider community, and could potentially overwhelm police and social services resources.6 One pragmatic approach for dealing with cases of sexually active minors is to assess each case individually for signs of abuse, and consider the context of the child’s overall life (eg are there signs of other risk-taking behaviour, intellectual impairment or vulnerability?). This approach makes it an ethical, not a legal decision to report sexually active adolescents to authorities. If we accept that this is an ethical rather than a legal decision, we then need to know how ethics can be useful in deciding whether this was an abusive relationship, and if it is in the adolescent’s best interest to report this to the police, because as this case shows, the two decisions may not, ethically speaking, be one and the same. Read the Full Article HERE 
Supporting Aotearoa's rainbow people : a practical guide for mental health professionals
This guide is for anyone who provides mental health support in Aotearoa, including (but not limited to) counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, tohunga (Māori healers), social workers, mental health nurses, and GPs. It will also be helpful for youth workers, group facilitators, and peer supporters. Get the Guide HERE Visit the Website HERE | ||||||||
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