1. Co-Design with People with Lived Experience: Designing Resources to Communicate with Children and Young People in Care about their Family Time Contact Visits.
- Author
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Black, Billy, Hendry, Bobby, Wright, Amy Conley, and Collings, Susan
- Subjects
EXPERIMENTAL design ,PARTICIPANT-researcher relationships ,EXPERIENCE ,CHILDREN'S accident prevention ,ACTION research ,CHILD welfare ,FAMILY relations ,PSYCHOLOGY of foster children ,FOSTER home care ,SOCIAL case work - Abstract
Contact visits, or family time, enable children in out-of-home care to sustain relationships with their birth families. In Australia, direct contact including face-to-face visits is typical for children on long-term orders, including guardianship and open adoption. Caseworkers are charged with supporting relationships between children's birth family members and carers and ensuring contact is safe and child-centred. This article describes how people with lived experience of family time in out-of-home care have collaborated with researchers to co-design practical resources, in the context of an action research study aimed at changing caseworker practice. These resources include a book for young children and a book for older children and adolescents, which both use trauma-informed language and empower their audiences to know their rights and ask for what they need. Additional resources include co-designed tip sheets for family members and carers. People who have personally experienced the care system have unique insights into the experience of family time in out-of-home care and how it can be improved. In partnership, researchers and people with lived experience can identify the gaps in knowledge and practice resources, and co-design resources that integrate lived experience and research findings, underpinned by theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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