Families, life events and family service delivery

Life events or transitions are understood to be circumstances that have an unsettling element for individuals (and from a systemic perspective, for family members also). Life events or transitions, even when pursued and ultimately beneficial, usually require adjustment on one or more fronts and relinquishment of at least some areas of familiarity. Examples of life events include: births, establishing a new relationship, moving house, entering the education system, starting a new job, experiencing a physical or mental illness, deaths, and so on. The Australian Institute of Family Studies (the Institute; AIFS) has completed this literature review on life events at the request of the Portfolio Department of Human Services (the Department; DHS)

Evaluation of the 2012 family violence amendments: synthesis report

This report sets out the overall findings of the evaluation of the 2012 family violence amendments. The evaluation examined the effects of amendments to the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth)  that were intended to improve the family law system’s responses to matters involving family violence and safety concerns. Key messages Most separated parents don’t use family dispute resolution, lawyers or courts to resolve parenting matters after they separate Those parents who do use family law systems tend to be those affected by complex issues including family violence, mental ill-health, substance abuse and safety concerns for themselves and/or their children There has been an increased emphasis on identifying families with concerns about family violence and child abuse, however 29% of parents using family law system services reported never being asked about family violence or safety concerns Family law professionals indicated that better screening tools and approaches are required The reforms have supported sorting out parenting arrangements by agreement. This is likely to be due to a change in 2012 that means advisors tell parents that parenting arrangements should be in a child’s best interests Subtle changes in parenting arrangements are evident such as more parents with safety concerns reporting a shift away from overnight stays with fathers The proportion of children with court orders for shared care, where allegations of both family violence or child safety had been raised, fell after the reforms (from 19% to 11%) The proportion of court orders for shared care where neither family violence nor child safety was raised remained stable (22%): no significant change showed where only one issue was raised (17% pre-reform, 15% post-reform). Overall the main findings of the evaluation indicate that the 2012 family violence amendments are a step in the right direction in a reform agenda intended to improve the system’s response to family violence and child abuse concerns in post-separation parenting arrangements. See related content for seperate reports.   &nbsp

COVID-19 and Separated Families

Many families in Australia are experiencing considerable stress related to fears about COVID-19, economic pressures (the loss of livelihood or income; rent or mortgage stress, etc), the strain of sudden forced confined close relationships, and juggling children and work from home. New challenges and stresses are emerging in particular for separated families, family law professionals, and family law courts. In this paper, we reflect on some of these challenges in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic

The AIFS evaluation of the 2006 family law reforms : a summary

In 2006, the Australian Government, through the Attorney- General\u27s Department (AGD) and the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), commissioned the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) to undertake an evaluation of the impact of the 2006 changes to the family law system: Evaluation of the 2006 Family Law Reforms (Kaspiew et al., 2009) (the Evaluation). This article provides a summary of the key findings of the Evaluation.<br /

Family violence : key findings from the evaluation of the 2006 family law reforms

The different types, prevalence and consequences of family violence, as demonstrated by the Australian Institute of Family Studies\u27 Evaluation of the 2006 Family Law Reforms, are discussed. Family violence is shown to be an extremely complex phenomenon, which affects the mental and social well-being of the children. Hence, different measures that can be adopted to deal with pre- and post-separation periods and child care problems are also analyzed.<br /

Defining and delivering effective counselling and psychotherapy

This paper reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of counselling and psychotherapy, and highlights the factors that contribute to its success. Overview Following a brief historical summary of three mainstream approaches, this paper addresses the similarities and differences between the terms counselling and psychotherapy. After settling on counselling as the default term, the paper then provides a comprehensive definition, explores counselling\u27s essentially voluntary nature and examines the practice and research divide between individual, couples and family focused work. Though there is good evidence for the effectiveness of individual, as well as couples and family counselling, it is acknowledged that amassing the evidence with respect to couples and family work has proved to be a more challenging task. The finding that the strength of counselling effectiveness has altered little over the past 40 years is then linked to the question of how counselling works. The evidence points away from a medically grounded focus on differential effects of particular models of counselling, towards common factors - especially the nature of the counsellor-client alliance - that appear to be present in all successful counselling outcomes. The common factors findings, in turn, suggest the need for a shift in focus from the relative efficacy of differing models of counselling to research into counsellor training and the ongoing development of counsellor expertise. A key correlate of this continued development has been shown to be counsellors\u27 capacity and willingness to seek and act upon client feedback. Moreover, the formalisation of a feedback-informed approach via validated, user-friendly client feedback protocols permits the monitoring of outcomes on both a case-by-case and aggregate basis. This in turn provides a way forward with respect to developing an ongoing accountability framework for counsellors, counselling agencies and their funders