Foster carers urgently needed to provide safe homes for local children

Arecent statewide survey found that 76% of foster carers rated their sense of achievement and fulfilment as seven out of ten or higher, and local foster care agency, Veritas House hopes the positive result inspires local residents to consider providing a safe home for a child or young person.

Almost 1900 carers were surveyed by My Forever Family in the NSW Carer Survey 2022 and Veritas House CEO, Jody Pearce says the top two areas identified by carers as needing additional support did not come as a surprise to Veritas House, as these had been a major focus over the past 18 months by the local agency.

“Carers identified in the survey that access to psychological services and behaviour support for children and young people in Out of Home Care were needed, and these are two areas Veritas has been focusing on over the past 18 months,” said Jody.

“We had already recognised the lack of access to clinical services in the region, so introduced a team of registered psychologists, clinical psychologists, provisional psychologists and an occupational therapist to deliver therapy and assessment services to support the learning and behaviour support needs of the children and young people in Out of Home Care who are being supported by Veritas House foster carers.”

Children and young people enter Foster Care for a myriad of reasons, but generally they have experienced a degree of trauma, neglect and abuse that required intervention and removal for their own safety and wellbeing. Consequently, children in care sometimes have difficulties with managing their behaviours and navigating their relationships and emotions. It is crucial they gain a sense of security and are provided with a safe and supportive home environment.

Almost 80 households in the Central

West are authorised Foster Carers with Veritas House, providing positive family environments for over 90 children and young people. However, Veritas is in need of more Foster Carers and hopes the positive satisfaction ratings reported in the carer survey will lead to more enquiries about becoming a foster carer in the months ahead.

“Our Foster Carers play a critical role in assisting children and young people in their care to grow and develop in a happy and heathy way and we were very pleased to see the sustained levels of carer satisfaction reflected in this survey compared to the previous survey in 2020, and despite some difficult years due to Covid,” said Jody.

“Veritas House staff work hard to provide our foster carers with a range of supports including ongoing training, education, respite and after-hours supports, and these survey results give us confidence that these efforts are allowing carers to focus their energy on creating safe, loving homes for some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our community.”

Anyone considering becoming a foster carer must be over 18, an Australian citizen or permanent resident, in good health and without a criminal record. Carers can be single, married, in a de-facto or in a same sex relationship.

For more information about becoming a Carer with Veritas House, visit veritashouse. org.au. For more information on the NSW Carer Survey 2022 Report visit myforeverfamily.org.au/about-us/carersurvey/.

Veritas House is a not-for-profit organisation that was established in the Central West 40 years ago and has grown to become one of the largest providers of foster care, youth homelessness, family support and mental health services in the region, supporting more than 800 children and young people each year.