Back in the very early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic, in mid-late April last year, Professor Bruce Smyth and I were having a bit of a conversation about how the Pandemic lockdown was impacting on the experience of families traversing the family law system in Australia. From that conversation a few extra voices gathered around the topic “COVID-19 in Australia: Impacts on Separated Families, Family Law Professionals and Family Courts” and an article was written and was published in the “Family Court Review”, the American Journal of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. I am proud to share with you that the article won the Meyer Elkin Essay Award – the first time that Australian authors have won the award. My sincere congratulations to co-authors: Professor Bruce Smyth; Lawrie Maloney, Judge Joe Harman and Dr Marian Esler on the win!
Reading back through the article it captures a ‘point in time’ perspective on the challenges and opportunities the Pandemic imposed on the Family Law system. In particular, there was a radical shift to telepractice in some service provision where face-to-face service delivery was not possible. This radical shift was of course felt, to varying degrees, across all family and relationship services in the sector.
Here at FRSA we have been flagging for some time our intention to look more forensically into the use of telepractice in the family and relationship services sector. We are on the cusp of starting this work with our members, literally, and are very excited to have commissioned the Australian Institute of Family Studies to work on this project. There is more on this in our eBulletin.
In the last fortnight we have also delivered our first online Conference, the Child Inclusive Practice Forum. We were initially a little hesitant to move online given we are a sector filled with ‘people people’ so missing out on the face to face element of these events felt like such a loss. But, we managed to double registration numbers and therefore bring an extra 200 people into a conversation about child inclusive practice. My thanks to keynote speakers, panellists, all CIP presenters, sponsors and the CIP Clinical Committee for their adaptability to this online Forum. You created a very rich conversation and the feedback thus far is extremely encouraging. For those who have registered, you have access to all the panels, keynotes and presentations for the next 60 days – enjoy!
The Queen’s Birthday Honours were announced earlier this week with a number of connections to the FRSA Membership. Sincere congratulations to CEO of Relationship Matters Counselling and Mediation, Janet Jukes, for being awarded an OAM for her service to the community through LGBTQI advocacy and social welfare organisations; to the President of OzChild, Helen Maxwell Wright, awarded an AM for her dedication to improving the health and wellbeing outcomes of others; and former YFS Board Director, Tim Keeler, awarded an AM for leading community efforts to reduce domestic and family violence in Logan. In a recent edition of the e-bulletin I noted that Dr Brian Babbington, CEO of Families Australia will be retiring this year. It was lovely to see his work acknowledged with a Queen’s Birthday Honour, receiving an AM for his significant service to children through safety and well-being initiatives.
I have no doubt our Victorian connections are looking forward to the easing of restrictions just ahead of the weekend. You have, without a doubt, weathered the most of this COVID-19 storm!
By Jackie Brady
