The recent collection of out-of-home care data by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has enabled an analysis of placement trends for the three year period 1993-1996. Significant findings include a sharp increase in overall numbers of children placed into care and a continuing decline in the use of residential/group care. The data are considered in the context of longer term placement trends and some implications for service delivery are discussed.

This article reviews recent reform, research and trends in foster care (family foster care, kinship care and group care) in the US. In presenting this data attention is drawn to the lack of comparable Australian materials. Practitioners are also cautioned against embracing US initiatives too eagerly as the time lag in the transfer of information means that these developments may have been modified by research findings by the time they come to notice in Australia.

Children of parents who abuse substances have become a concern of child protection agencies, family support services, family preservation services and increasingly of drug and alcohol treatment agencies. In the context of a formative evaluation of a specialised intensive family support service designed to address the needs of families at this interface, a literature review has been undertaken. From that review, themes relating to women as substance abusers, the children of substance abusers, and services to enhance parenting in these situations are reported. Implications for intensive home-based practice are identified.

It is argued that much needed policies and practices to counter bullying in Australian schools should be based upon a realistic appraisal of what is known through research into the nature of the problem. This article provides a review of relevant Australian research between 1991 and 1996 conducted primarily by the author and co-workers, drawing particularly on school children’s reports and experiences and their perceptions of what can be done; finally it discusses steps that can be taken to reduce bullying in schools.

Domestic violence is a serious problem in our community. The effects on women victims can be severe, producing both physical and emotional health problems. Children too can be similarly affected, as witnesses to parental violence and as the focus of parental abuse. For both there can be the further difficulty of a breakdown in their interactions which can lead to damaged attachment. While recovery from violence depends ultimately upon guaranteed safety for the victims, the process can be enhanced by repairing the bonds of attachment between mother and child. A program has been developed to rebuild damaged attachment which addresses issues in a child-focussed manner using movement, games and play.

Every day, health and welfare workers translate the needs of the disadvantaged into words that communicate those troubles to others. Such translations (or interpretations) run the risk of reducing or changing the experiences to allow them to fit with the expectations and demands of organisations and bureaucracies. This column draws upon the author’s reflections on a complex and important, but rarely studied, aspect of social welfare practice.