Back to Search
Start Over
'My life's been a total disaster but I feel privileged': care-leavers' access to personal records and their implications for social work practice.
- Source :
- Child & Family Social Work; May2014, Vol. 19 Issue 2, p215-224, 10p
- Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- In Australia, there is no binding protocol that proscribes the processes by which the release of personal records of adults who grew up in care occurs. Individual agencies that hold the records - both government and non-government organizations - have their own policy and practice guidelines. While not specific to care-leavers, the existence of freedom of information and privacy legislation means that the subject of the records is entitled to access information about themselves, but this is not unproblematic. Drawing on qualitative in-depth interviews with a group of Australian care-leavers, this paper discusses their experiences of accessing personal records. Accessing these records was often highly significant to identity formation, but could produce both positive and negative effects. The negative aspects of the records were that, typically, at least in part, they were incomplete, insulting, incorrect and/or incomprehensible. Currently, the range of support provided to those accessing their records varies significantly across agencies. The findings of this research suggest the need for the greater provision of supported release and the implications for social work practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- AGE distribution
CHILD welfare
ATTITUDE (Psychology)
CIVIL rights
CONSUMER attitudes
DECISION making
DOCUMENTATION
FOSTER children
FOSTER home care
GROUP identity
INTERVIEWING
MANAGEMENT
SOCIAL services
PSYCHOLOGICAL stress
QUALITATIVE research
DISCLOSURE
PROFESSIONAL practice
ACCESS to information
THEMATIC analysis
RESIDENTIAL care
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
SOCIETIES
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 13567500
- Volume :
- 19
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Child & Family Social Work
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 94576518
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2012.00895.x