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Engaging Marginalised and Vulnerable Families
July 29, 2010 by dovetail
The Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne has published a policy brief titled “Engaging Marginalised and Vulnerable Families”. This paper highlights the barriers to engaging families facing multiple difficulties such as domestic violence, AOD use and / or mental and physical health problems, to name a few. The paper finds that many of these families do at times access some support services, however they tend to disengage or access is infrequent and crisis driven. Some of the barriers identified include service barriers (like rigid eligibility criteria, limited access to transport, waiting lists etc), family barriers (for example being homeless or transient, limited family income) and interpersonal barriers (including lack of trust in service providers, past negative experiences with services etcetera). The paper goes on to consider the ways services can work to overcome these barriers, and increase access to services for some of the most vulnerable families.
