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Spivakovsky et al. (2023) questioned the effectiveness of Positive Behaviour Support as an intervention for reducing challenging behaviour and the use of restrictive practices as a behaviour management approach. This article responds to their critique. We argue that the literature supports the effectiveness of Positive Behaviour Support when it is properly implemented. As employees of a Positive Behaviour Support service provider, our position is also supported by our experience of the use of Positive Behaviour Support and its beneficial outcomes. To ensure a high level of fidelity in the implementation of Positive Behaviour Support, it needs to align with the elements that underpin Positive Behaviour Support (i.e., elements of applied behaviour analysis, person-centred practice, human rights, system change) rather than simply implementing Positive Behaviour Support to meet existing legislative requirements. In conclusion, when Positive Behaviour Support service provision and implementation in Australia is correctly aligned with the core components of Positive Behaviour Support, positive outcomes for people with disabilities, including a reduction in the use of restrictive practices, can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability's Final Report identified multiple barriers preventing people with disabilities in Australia from living in suitable housing, and from being able to choose where they live, with whom they live, and how they live. The issues discussed in the Report include tenancy insecurity, difficulties accessing social housing, difficulty finding physically accessible homes, poor response to high rates of homelessness among people with disabilities, and substandard housing and living conditions in supported boarding houses. Addressing these concerns, the Report makes a number of important recommendations that span a range of housing tenures and both housing and disability policies and strategies. Focusing primarily on "mainstream" housing options, where the majority of people with disabilities live, in this article I argue that if implemented, these recommendations will have a transformative impact on housing for people with disabilities, and on people with intellectual disabilities more specifically. However, I also argue that for this to happen, a new supply of affordable housing needs to be developed and delivered at scale, and note the Commission's aversion from directly tackling this issue in its recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group homes have been an important option for people with intellectual disabilities leaving the family home or institutions. They were one focus of the Royal Commission on Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disabilities. Much evidence was collected about harm experienced by people in group homes through submissions, and dedicated and other hearings about disability services more generally. In its Final Report the Commission considered group homes to be both a flawed model and subject to weak implementation similar to that identified across the Australian disability service system more generally. This article describes the Commission's approach to group homes, the evidence heard, and its conclusions; and critiques its stance, processes, and recommendations, identifying links to the NDIS Review published after the Commission's Report in 2023. The Commission's recommended reforms to practice, and replacement of group homes with alternative options reflect current policy directions, but raise issues that will be important for implementation; including; uncertainty about alternatives to group homes, the risk of alternatives not having better outcomes and thus the loss of good services, risk of neglecting quality of support practice in new alternatives and recurrence of institutional practice in them, and potential negative impacts on existing residents of signalling group homes as a flawed model. The Commissions' approach missed opportunities for appreciative enquiry about conditions that lead to good outcomes in some group homes. The article concludes by considering the benefits for people with intellectual disabilities of singling out long-term residents and people with complex or high support needs, together with the potential for a quicker pace of change that may result from the Commission's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability made important recommendations about regulating disability service provision. These recommendations included those about: complaints; provider and worker registration; enforcement; resourcing of the regulator; and, quality auditing. This article analyses the Royal Commission's findings, recommendations and commentary and places them in the broader context of regulatory theory, research and practice. The article's concluding comments focus on the trade-offs inherent in regulatory resourcing and enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Managing consumers with challenging behaviours by way of secluding them has been practiced for centuries. Many countries have attempted to eliminate seclusion but with very limited success. The Victorian government in Australia has embarked on a plan to stop seclusion within the coming 10 years. A qualitative research design using a purposive cluster sampling technique was utilised to understand nurses' perceptions on attempts to eliminate seclusions in acute wards. Semi‐structured interviews and a thematic analysis were used to reveal participants' perceptions. Analysis revealed six themes: personal views, staff skills/resources, safety concerns, stakeholders' influence, doubt about elimination and participants' recommendations. Participants were doubtful of seclusion elimination success if there were no major improvements in nurse security, infrastructure, funding and staffing. Further research is required to establish and develop effective alternatives to seclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the British Government's decision to establish the Royal Commission on the War in South Africa and how the Edwardian press presented its findings to the public. It will discuss how the Conservative media attempted to downplay the significance of the report and how the Liberal and Radical presses attempted to use it to raise questions about the Government's ability to manage crises and, by linking the failures of military planning to new Conservative economic and education policies, challenge the competency of the Colonial Secretary and powerful Unionist leader, Joseph Chamberlain. Finally, it will show how the press, regardless of political leaning, remained supportive of the military leadership which conducted the war effort despite it playing a significant role in the faulty planning and operational failures of 1899. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme was published in July 2023. It found that the scheme was a 'costly failure of public administration, in both human and economic terms'. The Trial by Franz Kafka is a seminal literary metaphor for how bureaucracy can give way to corruption and dystopia. In a brief parallel reading, I show how the findings made by Commissioner Holmes conform with Kafka's blueprint of an absurd bureaucratic machine. I also explore some broader implications of this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The prescription of psychotropic medication to older people living with dementia in residential aged care has become an increasing concern. The use of prescription medication is often prefaced as a way of preventing harm to self and others. However, the use of such medications has been considered a way of managing some of the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. Using a large secondary data set, this study aimed to identify the precursors and mediating factors that influence the use of chemical restraint of older people in residential aged care. Methods Publicly available documents from the Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety were used as the data corpus for this study. Keywords were used to search over 7000 documents to extract a set of topic-related content. We identified the cases of seven people in respite or permanent residential aged care who had been prescribed or administered psychotropic medication under circumstances that appeared to demonstrate chemical restraint. All documents relating to the cases were collated for our data set. A descriptive case study approach to analysis was taken. Results Four key descriptive patterns were identified: labelling and limits to tolerance, pushing prescription as a solution, coverups and avoiding consent, and family’s fight for liberty. Triangulation across the data and academic literature supports the findings. Conclusion Our findings provide some insight into how chemical restrain happens. Featuring throughout the cases were reports of a lack of workforce capacity to care for and support residents exhibiting dementia behaviours. Prescription of psychotropic medications featured as a “first resort” care solution. Family and friends found such approaches to care unacceptable and frequently challenged the practice. Where consent for prescription was explicitly denied, more covert approaches are demonstrated. Family awareness, presence, and advocacy were key to challenging the practice of chemical restraint. Shortfalls in the capacity of the current workforce come into play here. However, workforce shortcomings can no longer mask this ubiquitous practice. Just as importantly the spotlight needs to be turned on the prescribers and the providers.

The 2021 release of the report from the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System suggested 65 recommendations to improve a mental healthcare system that was described as "broken". Several of these recommendations relate to the use of restrictive interventions, such as restraint (both physical and mechanical) and seclusion. These interventions continue to be used in Victorian inpatient mental health facilities today, often in response to aggression and violence towards staff, visitors, family and other consumers. Several health services have committed to the substantial reduction or elimination of the use of restrictive interventions. In this perspective paper, we argue that significant investment is required to achieve this goal. Pressure on mental health nursing staff to cease using restrictive interventions without viable alternatives to de‐escalation, restrictions in the built environment, workforce constraints and a lack of education provided early in nursing careers need to be addressed before we can achieve the elimination of restrictive interventions. We recommend that substantial investment in mental health inpatient units, the mental health nursing workforce, and a systemic shift in the role of the mental health nurse are required to attain sustained reduction and potential elimination of restrictive interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of a local newspaper in shaping a community's collective memory of child sexual abuse by documenting changing representations of a former rural orphanage and its custodians where such horrific crimes took place. The paper conducts an across-time analysis of news coverage (1944–1954 and 2010–2020) to map these changing representations in their media, policy and social contexts. It extends scholarship around collective memory and temporal reflexivity as a provocation for journalists to acknowledge and engage with their news outlet's own mediated past (no matter how uncomfortable) when reporting on and interpreting events such as Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prescription of psychotropic medication to older people living with dementia in residential aged care has become an increasing concern. The use of prescription medication is often prefaced as a way of preventing harm to self and others. However, the use of such medications has been considered a way of managing some of the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. Using a large secondary data set, this study aimed to identify the precursors and mediating factors that influence the use of chemical restraint of older people in residential aged care. Methods: Publicly available documents from the Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety were used as the data corpus for this study. Keywords were used to search over 7000 documents to extract a set of topic-related content. We identified the cases of seven people in respite or permanent residential aged care who had been prescribed or administered psychotropic medication under circumstances that appeared to demonstrate chemical restraint. All documents relating to the cases were collated for our data set. A descriptive case study approach to analysis was taken. Results: Four key descriptive patterns were identified: labelling and limits to tolerance, pushing prescription as a solution, coverups and avoiding consent, and family's fight for liberty. Triangulation across the data and academic literature supports the findings. Conclusion: Our findings provide some insight into how chemical restrain happens. Featuring throughout the cases were reports of a lack of workforce capacity to care for and support residents exhibiting dementia behaviours. Prescription of psychotropic medications featured as a "first resort" care solution. Family and friends found such approaches to care unacceptable and frequently challenged the practice. Where consent for prescription was explicitly denied, more covert approaches are demonstrated. Family awareness, presence, and advocacy were key to challenging the practice of chemical restraint. Shortfalls in the capacity of the current workforce come into play here. However, workforce shortcomings can no longer mask this ubiquitous practice. Just as importantly the spotlight needs to be turned on the prescribers and the providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to highlight the threats that use of social media poses to valuing diverse voices and different kinds of expertise about disability in public debates by exploring how disability advocates responded on social media to the evidence presented by researchers to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Data were collected from the social media platform Twitter during the first week of Public Hearing 3 of the Royal Commission in December 2019. Tweets by 48 individuals and 27 representatives of advocacy groups who were not described as academic researchers in their Twitter profile were collected, anonymised, and coded using template analysis techniques. Findings showed that social media commentators were critical of the presence and participation of researchers in the Commission hearings and questioned the legitimacy of their research methods and findings. These commentators stated that researchers should not speak "for" or "about" people with disabilities and rejected evidence that did not resonate with their own individual experience. For the Commission to deliver meaningful recommendations to improve the disability sector, disability policy and the lives of people with disabilities, it is important to value both stories of lived experience and rigorous research evidence. Public discourse that undermines the relationships between researchers and disability self-advocates and advocates may be unhelpful for future collaboration on the development of better policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of institutional listening in deliberative democracy, focusing particularly on its contribution to the transmission process between the public sphere and formal institutions. We critique existing accounts of transmission for prioritizing voice over listening and for remaining constrained by an 'aggregative logic' of the flow of ideas and voices in a democracy. We argue that formal institutions have a crucial role to play in ensuring transmission operates according to a more deliberative logic. To substantiate this argument, we focus on two recent examples of institutional listening in two different democracies: Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the United States' Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. These cases show that institutional listening can take different forms; it can be purposefully designed or incidental, and it can contribute to the realization of deliberative democracy in various ways. Specifically, institutional listening can help enhance the credibility and visibility of minority groups and perspectives while also empowering these groups to better hold formal political institutions accountable. In these ways, institutional listening helps transmission operate according to a more deliberative logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1920s, patients and former patients produced oral and written accounts of their mental hospital experiences. Many aimed to inform the public about the institutions and to improve standards of care, but their views were usually ignored. The assumption that mental disorders affected all aspects of a person's judgement, plus defensive and disparaging attitudes of hospital authorities and formal committees of inquiry, contributed to this. Various other public agendas, financial crises and rising unemployment detracted from the needs of mentally unwell people. Small improvements in care materialized, but lay, professional and institutional cultures generally preserved the status quo. Regarding learning from patients' feedback, some hurdles encountered in the 1920s resonate with challenges in today's National Health Service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aotearoa New Zealand’s Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care is currently inquiring into the historic abuse of those in state and faith-based care and uncovering stories of violence, neglect and exclusion. Disabled people are a population group that has been significantly affected by historic abuse. For much of the twentieth century, eugenics-based public policy framed disability as something to be feared and bred out of the population, as it threatened the 'fitness' of the 'white race'. Consequently, thousands of disabled children, young people and adults were removed from families and communities and spent their lives in institutions, residential special schools or foster homes. Some children with learning disability or other neurodiverse conditions were locked up in youth justice boys' and girls' homes after minor incidents such as school truancy. Physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, medical, financial, cultural and spiritual abuse and neglect, as well as poor record keeping, were widespread in these institutions. To understand this history, and to honour those who survived and remember those who did not, the commission and the people of Aotearoa New Zealand need to hear these stories. This article provides some history and context for the commission, describes a research project that gathered stories of hard-to-reach disabled survivors and advocates for collecting, archiving and making Aotearoa New Zealand's disability history visible.

In recent years, the failings of institutions to safeguard children from sexual abuse have been brought to light through investigations and commissions of inquiries such as Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The role of adults as guardians, to protect children within these institutions, has been afforded particular scrutiny, highlighting past ineffective and harmful intervention and responses to abuse, and even inaction. Despite this attention, limited research to date has explored the barriers underpinning guardianship behavior in this setting. Enhanced understanding of the potential barriers to guardianship is key for informing improved guardianship behavior in the future. Using data from Australia's Royal Commission, this study applies Reynald's (2010) model of capable guardianship to investigate dimensions of guardianship in youth-serving institutional settings. Three discrete settings were examined: outside school hours care, schools, and sporting institutions. Results support the utility of Reynald's (2010) model for advancing knowledge about guardianship behavior in youth-serving institutions, providing valuable lessons for future policy directions, to enhance safeguarding practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare the historical staffing patterns and organisational characteristics of Australian residential aged care facilities (RACFs) against the new minimum staffing standards recommended by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (RCACQS). Method: Retrospective data analysis was used to compare the staffing levels and characteristics of 1705 RACFs (for 4 years, 2016–19) with the three new mandatory staffing requirements. De-identified datasets were provided by the RCACQS, obtained under its legal authority. Results: Only 3.8% of RACFs have staffing levels at or above all three requirements. Although many (79.7%) already meet the requirement to have a registered nurse (RN) on-site for morning and afternoon shifts, few have staffing levels above requirements for total direct care per resident per day (10.4%) or care provided by an RN per resident per day (11.1%). Historical levels of on-site RNs, total direct care, and RN care vary significantly across facilities of different size, location and provider scale. Conclusion: The new staffing standards, to be mandatory by 2023, prescribe minimum requirements significantly higher than existing levels, particularly in care per resident per day. Each of the three requirements will likely have a differential effect for different types of RACFs. What is known about the topic?: International evidence suggests that introducing mandatory minimum staffing standards tends to increase the amount of care provided by staff in residential aged care facilities (RACFs). However, the impact of staffing standards is influenced by the stringency of the minimum threshold relative to existing staffing levels, the capacity of organisations to increase their staffing levels, and the specific way the regulation is formulated. What does this paper add?: This paper explores the potential implications of the three national minimum staffing standards, to be in force by October 2023, specifying total direct care, care received by a registered nurse (RN), and an RN on-site. By examining the existing staffing levels of Australian RACFs, it identifies the extent to which facilities already meet the new standards and the characteristics of facilities with staffing levels above and below the three requirements (individually and in combination). What are the implications for practitioners?: The study informs both policy and practice in relation to the likely effects of implementing the national minimum staffing standards for residential aged care in Australia. It demonstrates that the new minimum thresholds are likely to require substantial increases in staffing across the sector, both in terms of all direct care workers and RNs. It also shows that the three requirements are likely to have a differential effect for RACFs of different size, location and chain affiliation, thereby guiding policy about the future needs for Australia's aged care workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System relating to the reduction and elimination of the use of seclusion and restraint. The author focuses on the implications of these recommendations for women. She argues that the Royal Commission's proposals stand to benefit all mental health consumers but did not address the full range of gender-specific experiences and needs of women. The Andrews government has committed to implementing the Royal Commission's recommendations, and the author identifies a range of issues that must be attended to in order to ensure these matters are dealt with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our work presents a meta-synthesis of 76 peer-reviewed, qualitative-research journal articles related to our research interest in the spiritual care training available for relatives and friends of people living with dementia. A total of 244 articles was reviewed prior to the application of selection criteria. The final sample of 2698 research participants across our selection of 76 peer-reviewed qualitative-research studies serves to demonstrate the value of spiritual care as an aspect of holistic palliative and dementia care. The development and implementation of spiritual-care standards and practices in healthcare generally is increasingly widespread. Most current training resources are designed for healthcare professionals, and our meta-synthesis identifies the need for training resources that equip and train volunteer spiritual carers, namely, the relatives and friends of people living with dementia. Our meta-synthesis suggests there is a need to develop training resources that equip relatives and friends with skills that prioritise attentive presence, spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence, and, primarily, sensory spiritual practices. Beyond this meta-synthesis, developing and trialling suitable training materials and events will become the focus of an action research project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers some of the theological, legal, canonical and communication issues involved in the relationship between the civil law in Australia and Catholic Church law and practice regarding the seal of the confessional. It does so by comparing two different real life cases and their different outcomes. The different responses to the two scenarios, both politically and in the mass media, were influenced by certain preconceptions, stereotypes and misrepresentations of the Catholic Church's teaching and practice. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse raised the question of what precisely is covered by the seal of confession. It recommended the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to approach the Holy See for clarification. The Royal Commission recommended that the Australian States change the law to remove the seal of confession as an exception to mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse. The Holy See response did not accept that proposition. The study concludes with a brief discussion of how the conflict of duty between the demands of the secular civil law on the one hand, and preserving the seal of confession on the other, might be resolved.

This study explored what helped and constrained children and young people with disability and high support needs, in feeling and being safe in institutional settings. Through adapted qualitative methods, 22 children and young people aged 7-25 years shared their conceptualizations of safety, along with facilitators and barriers to interpersonal safety in their everyday lives. Key themes were feeling safe and known in relationships, minimizing risk, having strategies and the opportunity to practice these, opportunities to learn about safety and supported transitions. The living patterns and environments of children and young people were different to their non-disabled peers, and they faced systemic barriers to activating safety strategies. Building meaningful prevention strategies for children and young people with disability requires specific skill in design and implementation. Without focused attention to their specific circumstances, measures promoting child safety may overlook the experiences of children and young people with intellectual disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a dearth of research investigating whether public inquiries such as Royal Commissions trigger community behavior change or awareness about targeted health and social issues within the general community. This study examined trends in the reporting of intimate partner violence (IPV) and help-seeking behavior before and during the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence. Six hundred seventy-seven women across Australia, including 172 migrant and 505 nonmigrant women, completed surveys on their experience of IPV and help-seeking behavior over a 4-year period. Prevalence estimates were weighted to the Australian Census data to reflect the Australian population breakdown for age and migrant status. Results showed levels of IPV reported by participants significantly increased during the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence in 2015. Similarly, the perceived need to seek help for abuse significantly increased from the start of the Royal Commission; this was, however, evident for nonmigrant, but not migrant women. The findings are discussed considering the influence of the Royal Commission into Family Violence, its public profile, and the pervasiveness of the information about family violence during this time that could have led to an increasing trend in knowledge about family violence and the perception of requiring assistance in the general community. It is recommended that future Royal Commissions prepare for predictable changes in community behavior and institutions organize their resources to address the potential increased disclosure of the problems addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the turn of the century, public inquiries into the perpetration and concealment of child sexual abuse within religious institutions have proliferated throughout Europe, North America and Australasia. This article examines the role that news media discourses might play in supporting this trend. Taking Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse as a case study, I compare how news media constructed its precipitating issue of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church at two different points in time: the period surrounding the announcement of the Royal Commission and a period 10 years earlier when calls were made for a Royal Commission that were not actualised. I find that in the decade before the Royal Commission's establishment news media deemed the Church capable of and responsible for delivering justice, and as such licensed it to respond to allegations of abuse internally. In the period surrounding the Royal Commission's establishment, however, the Church was rendered complicit and had lost its authority to manage the issue internally, while the State had become marked as responsible for recourse instead. This suggests that the emergence of the Royal Commission was imbricated in broader discursive shifts regarding which institution was attributed the right and responsibility to respond. These findings both indicate that news media discourses may play a role in facilitating or inhibiting the emergence of public inquiries and also raise critical questions about the consequences of a discursive shift that centres the State as responsible for and capable of delivering justice in the aftermath of institutional child sexual abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Total War” calls upon combatant countries to mobilize all of their resources and energies for war and their civilians to contribute in their own ways to the “war effort” of their respective governments. Carrying out such war, some governments try to redefine the distinction between the private sphere and the public sphere in their people’s lives. Even sexual life, the most private sphere in people’s lives, may be exposed to various forms of supervision and control from their states in the name of the national “war effort.” In particular, the government in war does not hesitate to scrutinize the most private sphere of their people’s lives when certain aspects of their lives do considerable harm to “war effort” or “national efficiency.” The British society in the First World War intensively experienced some kind of “social control” due to the increasing spread of venereal disease (VD) both among civilians and troops. Like British society as a whole, the British army, who had primary responsibility to fight the war in the field, had to fight another hard battle against an enemy within VD, throughout the war. During the First World War, VD caused 416,891 hospital admissions among British and Dominion troops. Excluding readmissions for relapses, approximately five percent of all the men who served in Britain's armies in the course of the war became infected. During the war, at least a division was constantly out of action because so many troops had to treat VD. This disease caused a huge drain on the British army's human and material resources and consequently undermined, to a considerable extent, its military efficiency. However, a series of measures of the British Army to improve the high rate of infection among their troops have been simply considered ineffective by both contemporaries and subsequent researchers. This article aims to provide a more balanced perspective on the efforts of the British Army to fight VD during the war and reconsider the existing understandings in regard to their general effectiveness. It argues that the overall measures of the British Army regarding VD have to be examined in the context of the national efforts of British society to fight against VD as a whole. Their supposed ineffectiveness well-reflected the indecisiveness of the overall British society in terms of both how to view VD and how to fight against it.

This essay will examine the contribution of pastoral (professional) supervision in enabling and ensuring a safe church. Pastoral supervision is the brave, safe space where clergy (and ministry workers) reflect on their ministry practice in a regular, planned supervision session. The present article emerges from a decade of training pastoral supervisors and consultation across the national Anglican Church during 2019 based on recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It concludes that the properly Christian way for pastoral supervision to change the culture of the Church is christological: a rigorous grounding of its theory and practice in the story of Jesus Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Black Summer Fires of 2019/2020 remind us not only that Australia is arguably the most bushfire prone area in the world but also that we have much to learn in terms of how we learn from such events. Bushfires interact with emergency management systems in a manner that is complex and unpredictable which all too often results in damages and losses, so significant that governments establish public inquiries to forensically examine what happened and why afterwards. Too often, such processes have resulted in emergency management practitioners (EMP) being blamed, not to mention scapegoated and even vilified for damages and losses from major bushfire events. With recent bushfire events (as well as other crises surrounding Covid‐19) highlighting the excruciating demands placed on EMP and an escalating scepticism about whether public inquiries improve preparation for future bushfires, this paper explores the question: what can we learn about public inquiries based on the experiences of EMP? Learning to learn from bushfire through insights from emergency management practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 15 th April 2016 marked the 25-year anniversary since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) in Australia handed down its Final Report. The report signified a landmark in the relationships between Indigenous Australians and the post-colonial State and Federal governments. Established by the Hawke Labor Government in 1987, the Commission examined 99 Indigenous deaths. Most significant was the finding that the deaths were due to the combination of police and prisons failing their duty of care, and the high numbers of Indigenous people being arrested and incarcerated. In the wake of the RCIADIC, cross-cultural sessions and cultural competency workshops have become ubiquitous for public servants, therapists, and legal and welfare employees, in attempts to bridge gaps in cultural knowledge between agents of the welfare state and Indigenous clients. Using Indigenous Knowledges theory, this chapter assesses how cultural misalignments between Indigenous clients and those who work with them in the name of therapies designed to improve Indigenous lives, dominate cross-cultural interactions. In so doing the questions are posed: how do good intentions become part of the discourses and practices of on-going colonialism for Indigenous Australians, and what can be done to change the balance of power in favour of therapies of relevance to Indigenous people?

This paper considers some of the theological, legal, canonical and communication issues involved in the relationship between the civil law in Australia and Catholic Church law and practice regarding the seal of the confessional. It does so by comparing two different real life cases and their different outcomes. The different responses to the two scenarios, both politically and in the mass media, were influenced by certain preconceptions, stereotypes and misrepresentations of the Catholic Church's teaching and practice. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse raised the question of what precisely is covered by the seal of confession. It recommended the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to approach the Holy See for clarification. The Royal Commission recommended that the Australian States change the law to remove the seal of confession as an exception to mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse. The Holy See response did not accept that proposition. The study concludes with a brief discussion of how the conflict of duty between the demands of the secular civil law on the one hand, and preserving the seal of confession on the other, might be resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our work presents a meta-synthesis of 76 peer-reviewed, qualitative-research journal articles related to our research interest in the spiritual care training available for relatives and friends of people living with dementia. A total of 244 articles was reviewed prior to the application of selection criteria. The final sample of 2698 research participants across our selection of 76 peer-reviewed qualitative-research studies serves to demonstrate the value of spiritual care as an aspect of holistic palliative and dementia care. The development and implementation of spiritual-care standards and practices in healthcare generally is increasingly widespread. Most current training resources are designed for healthcare professionals, and our meta-synthesis identifies the need for training resources that equip and train volunteer spiritual carers, namely, the relatives and friends of people living with dementia. Our meta-synthesis suggests there is a need to develop training resources that equip relatives and friends with skills that prioritise attentive presence, spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence, and, primarily, sensory spiritual practices. Beyond this meta-synthesis, developing and trialling suitable training materials and events will become the focus of an action research project.

Like in many countries, the Australian Government has conducted an inquiry into child sexual abuse that occurred in institutional settings (The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse). Drawing on the findings from a qualitative study commissioned by the Royal Commission, this paper explores the perceptions of victim/survivors1 of the ways in which institutions (or individuals within them) responded supportively when sexual abuse was reported. While researchers and inquiries have reported on inadequacy of institutional responses, this paper addresses a research gap by investigating responses that victims/survivors perceived as helpful, while mindful of the overwhelmingly negative nature of their experiences. The paper contributes to the literature on institutional responses to child sexual abuse methodologically – by reporting on the challenges of a study of this type – and theoretically, by proposing a framework indicating how different helpful elements of an institutional response to child sexual abuse relate to each other in the victim/survivors' experiences. The findings are relevant for research on best practice in institutional responses to child sexual abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored Australian criminal justice professionals' views on how well special measures for child complainants of sexual abuse are working in practice. We interviewed judges, prosecutors, defence counsel and witness assistance officers (n = 43) from four Australian jurisdictions, using a qualitative, non-directive approach. Overall, professionals perceived that special measures had improved evidence-giving processes for child complainants, but they nonetheless noted considerable room for improvement. The four overarching concerns that characterised the professionals' responses were: (1) a lack of skilled and well-informed personnel; (2) widespread problems with technology and logistics; (3) a lack of flexibility in recognising that every witness is different; and (4) potential negative effects of special measures on impact trial fairness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently concluded Australian Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry presented evidence of malfeasance, malpractice, and unethical and criminal behaviour by the banks. This article analyses the narratives proffered by the banks that were reported on the front pages of Australian media during the Royal Commission. This article analyses the strategies of denial and neutralisation used by the banks, including literal denial (nothing happened), interpretive denial (something happened but it's not what you think) and implicatory denial (it happened but action is not needed and/or possible), and provides insight into the ways powerful institutions and individuals intervene in, construct, and support moral and legal codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]