Social Work With Children, Young People and Families/HYPOTHETICAL CASE STUDY “WINTERS FAMILY”
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Your organisation provides a family support service in a town of 3000 people located near
Traralgon. You receive referrals through Child FIRST and your service is accountable to DHS
through its funding and service agreement.
Your supervisor has allocated you to work with the Winters family. The family was referred
through Child FIRST which provided the following information:
Child FIRST INTAKE FORM
Date of Initial Contact: 4/3/2015 Intake Worker: Sally Jones
Purpose of contact: Information & Advice Referral Yes Other
Source of Referral to Child FIRST: (name / address / phone / Agency)
School Principal, local primary school
REFERRAL ASSESSED AS:
SIGNIFICANT WELLBEING CONCERNS Referral (legislative requirements) No
GENERAL FAMILY Referral Yes
Is the family aware of the referral? Yes
Child FIRST worker agreed to ring the family after discussion with the principal. Sally Jones
spoke with Darryl and Jas who are both agreeable to receiving help. Information below has
been provided from the previous family services involvement; from the school principal and
from Darryl and Jas.
Community Based Child Protection Worker consulted? No
Protective Services involved (other than Child Protection Intake)? No
Is Client Affected by Problem Gambling?: No
Family Violence is an issue Yes
A Worker Home Hazard Checklist commenced? No
PARENT DETAILS (Details relating to 1st Parent / Primary Caregiver)
Surname: Winters First Name: Darryl
Gender: Male Date of Birth: 15/1/1972
Country of Birth: Australia Cultural Background: Aboriginal
Language at home: English Interpreter required?: No
Occupation (incl. Unemployed/Income): Part time, casual labourer
Type of Housing: Office of Housing, 3 bedroom house in public housing street
Current Partner: Jasmine Schmidt
CHILDREN IN HOUSEHOLD AND/OR FAMILY UNIT
Brian, aged 15; Gary, 12; Sarah, 8
PARENT DETAILS (Details relating to 2nd Parent)
Surname Harrison First Name: May
Gender: Female Date of Birth: 19/7/1975
Address: Not known, no contact details
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HYPOTHETICAL CASE STUDY “WINTERS FAMILY”
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Country of Birth: Australia Cultural Background: Australian
Current Partner: Believed to be in another relationship somewhere out of town
Past Protective Services Involvement? Yes
(Alleged protective concerns, substantiation, nature of intervention and Protective Orders)
Substantiated issues of neglect resulted in a Supervision Order being placed on children in
2014. This has now been discharged after Darryl worked with family services over 6 months.
Protective Services involved currently? No
Notification required? No
REFERRER’S IDENTIFIED ISSUES
(Include ALERTS (including any worker safety issues if known, dangerous behaviour, violence):
Jim Dimasi, the school principal, contacted Child FIRST after Sarah had come to school and
told a teacher that there had been a fight at home recently and Jas (Jasmine) had been hurt.
She said her brother Brian had hit Jasmine. Her dad wasn’t home at the time. Mr. Dimasi said
he had been worried about Sarah for a while. She had often come to school without any lunch
and didn’t appear to have warm or clean clothes. He said Sarah is scared of Brian when her
dad isn’t around.
He said things had been OK when the family was involved with Family Services a year or so
ago, but then he noticed a gradual decline. Gary, the middle child had been at his school then
and had been OK, but he now understands Gary is having trouble fitting into secondary school
and has missed a fair bit of school already this year. He said Sarah’s attendance is generally
OK. He understands the older brother, Brian, has not been at school for nearly a year.
Mr. Dimasi said he thinks Darryl will accept Family Services help, but Darryl is very wary of
Child Protection. He might accept help to avoid Child Protection becoming involved. He said
Darryl is from an aboriginal background, but not from around here, and he does not relate to
the local aboriginal community.
To sum up, Mr Dimasi is concerned for Sarah’s well-being; also that Gary is missing school;
and that Brian’s behaviour is out of control, especially his violence to Jas and maybe his
younger siblings.
SIGNIFICANT OTHERS (including all fathers of child/ren, broader family, friends/neighbours)
Darryl and May separated in 2013 after what Darryl described as “a pretty fiery relationship”.
Child Protection had investigated May’s parenting of the children in 2014 and found
substantiated neglect of the children with particular concern for Sarah’s well-being. As a
result, Darryl offered to take over the parenting. May agreed and left town soon after. She
contacts the children occasionally but has not been back to see them since. Darryl said “I
know where May is—she’s not far away, but she hasn’t changed her ways. I don’t know if
she’ll ever be there for the kids.”
A file note from the previous family services involvement stated that May told the worker she
started drinking because she was unhappy in the marriage. She claimed Darryl would go off
for a few days leaving her with the kids. This started happening often. She suspected he was
seeing other women, so she eventually asked him to leave. The Family Services assessment
indicated that the worker wanted to refer May for a psychiatric assessment but she left town
before that could be arranged.
Darryl worked with Family Services and the Supervision Order was discharged late in 2014.
Family Services ceased their involvement early in 2015.
Darryl and Jas formed a relationship mid 2014, and Jas moved in with Sunshine soon after.
GENOGRAM:
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HYPOTHETICAL CASE STUDY “WINTERS FAMILY”
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Home Visit April 11, 2015:
I met Darryl and Jas and asked what they thought they needed
Darryl said Brian is his biggest worry. He admitted he can’t control him. Brian dropped out of
school about the time he and Jas got together. Brian has been verbally abusive to Jas all the
way through, and has pushed her twice, then recently he hit her following an argument. Jas
said “it all started when Brian had a go at me for sending Sarah to school without lunch. I told
him I didn’t have any money and there wasn’t any bread. He was mouthing off and I said ‘well
why isn’t May around when her kids need her?’ That’s when he whacked me and stormed
out.”
Darryl said Brian was May’s best helper. May had a drinking problem and Brian would clean
her up and look after the younger kids. Brian started going off the rails after May left and it
got worse when Jas moved in. He said Brian is hanging around with a local bunch of Koori
kids. He worries what they get up to. Brian doesn’t want to get involved with the local Koori
community and he doesn’t know how to bring Brian back into line.
Darryl said he’s also concerned that Gary hasn’t adjusted to secondary school and may go the
way Brian has gone. “He goes in on the school bus to the city, but then he shoots through
from school when he feels like it. Brian does the same—goes in on the bus but he doesn’t
even pretend to go to school. He’s down the street or at the skate park with his mates.”
Jas said she’s OK with Sarah and Sunshine, but Brian scares her, and she doesn’t know how to
connect with Gary. She explained that Darryl had gone chasing more work recently because
they were struggling financially, but that meant she was left with the kids most of the time.
“Sunny’s grandparents come and take her to3 year old kinder a couple of times a week. I
don’t have a car and the kinder is miles away. No buses out here in this small town.”
Jas said she has good support from her family and her former partner, Scott, although they
Separated 2013 Together 2014 Separated 2013
Live locally, take Sunny to kinder, support Jasmine
Aboriginal background, family in Qld
Darryl
Winters
43 “drinking problem?” Lives aw ay.
May
Harrison
40
Brian
15
Gary
12
Sarah
8
Jasmine
Schmidt
27
supportive of Jasmine
Scott
Sunshine
3
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HYPOTHETICAL CASE STUDY “WINTERS FAMILY”
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don’t think her relationship with Darryl is good for her. She can rely on them to help with
Sunshine, but they haven’t had anything to do with Darryl’s kids.
Darryl said he visits his family in Queensland every now and then, but he doesn’t want to go
back there. He doesn’t have any local family. He’s got a few mates through work and from
his old football club. He said he came down here in 1997 playing football and getting a bit of
work, met May, had kids, and gave up his full time job when he took over the parenting after
he and May separated and Child Protection became involved with May. He still gets casual
work when he can, and he’s been able to do a bit more since Jas moved in.
Darryl and Jas don’t have much to do with their neighbours. Jas said: “it’s not really a friendly
street. There are some young blokes who do burn outs at night and everyone keeps to
themselves. Down on the corner there’s a pretty wild crew. They drink a lot and the police
are there from time to time. I feel pretty isolated except when mum and dad come and give
us an outing.” Darryl said: “yeah I know, love, but I can’t get to work if I don’t take the car,
and we fall behind on the bills if I don’t work.” Jas said: “yeah, I know mate. We’re just sort
of trapped.”
School Visit—Jim Dimasi—Primary School Principal, April 13, 2015:
Mr Dimasi said he was pleased I had become involved with the family. He expressed his
concern that Family Services had withdrawn a year or more ago, saying: “I think this family
will always need help if the younger kids are to have any chance of succeeding. Sarah had a
really tough early childhood. Her mum drank a bit and didn’t really seem to care about Sarah.
I remember once Brian brought Sarah to school—she must have only been about 3—because
he said there was no-one else to care for her during the day. Brian thought the world of his
mum. He must feel very let down and probably angry that she doesn’t make more of an effort
with them.”
He went on to say that he thought Sarah needed a lot of stability and kindness to help her feel
confident about the world.
Mr Dimasi said he thought the older boys have both come to realise they are from aboriginal
background. “It didn’t seem to matter in primary school. As they got older they started to
realise what it meant. I’ve seen this with a few young blokes now. They get to a point where
they either reject their heritage or they start to wonder about it. Then they start to realise
what a raw deal their people have been given. I can relate a bit to that having grown up in an
Italian family in an anglo country town, but the Kooris have it much worse than what we
copped.”
“Darryl’s not a bad guy. He was a damned good footy player, only stopped playing a few years
ago, and I admire how he stepped in to look after the kids when May gave up. But he’s a bit
lost now. He took up with young Jasmine—gee, you should have heard the small town gossips
when that happened!–She’s a bit of a counter-culture type, you know, a bit way out, but she
seems quite hooked on Darryl.”
“I know it sounds harsh and I hate to give up on a kid, but I reckon we’ve all missed the boat
with Brian and we ought to really focus on trying to save Gary and Sarah. Good luck—let me
know if we can help at school.”
Phone Call, Phil Anderson, Aboriginal Health Worker, 15/4/2015:
Phil said he knew I was working with the family. He told me he had come across Brian one
day at the Aboriginal Co-op. Brian had come in with a group of Koori kids and Brian got
talking to him. He said Brian told him a few lies about coming down from Queensland for the
holidays to stay with his mates, but his mates had told Phil that Brian lived out in a small town
nearby. “It didn’t take me long to realise he is Darryl Winter’s boy. Darryl is well known
because of his football playing days. I contacted the school and found out that Brian hasn’t
been attending for a long while and his younger brother only turns up when it suits him. The
school suggested I should follow up with Brian and Gary, but they also told me you were
involved so I thought I’d give you a call.”
Phil said he had talked to Brian about his family. He said Brian told him he misses his mum
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and is worried about her. He said she drinks a bit but she was all right to him. He blames his
dad for his mum leaving, and now he thinks Jas is stopping Darryl telling him where his mum
is. Brian said what he would really like is to find out where his mum is and go and see her.
He hopes she might ask him to go and live with her. Phil said Brian told him that he likes footy
and he didn’t mind school, but every time he thinks he’ll go back to school or go to footy
training, he starts thinking about his mum, and then he gets angry and thinks “what’s the
use.”
Phil: “I asked Brian about Gary. This is what Brian said: ‘don’t worry, I’ll sort Gary out. He
just thinks he can do what he wants. Gary’s pretty smart and he should be in school. I’ll sort
him out, then I can go and live with mum and the rest of them will be all right without me
around.’” Phil said: “I’m worried about a kid who thinks that way. It’s like he sees himself as
being responsible for everyone. No wonder he hangs out with the older Koori kids because
they don’t let him rule the roost. He can just be a kid with them and take no responsibility. It
must be like time out for him from the rest of his life.”
Phil and I agreed to stay in touch. I said I would try to find out what Darryl might think about
Brian going to stay with May.
Home Visit, 16/4/2015:
Darryl was at work. Jas told me things had been pretty calm since the incident last week.
Brian has been home a few times. Other times he stays out overnight. “He’s kept to himself
when he’s been home but he did apologise to me for hitting me. He also warned me never to
talk about his mother again or I’d regret it.”
I asked Jas about May. Jas said: “I’ve only met her once or twice a long time ago, before she
and Darryl split. I used to work in the supermarket and she’d come in. She seemed all right.”
I asked where she is now. Jas seemed nervous and said: “I don’t really know. She doesn’t
ring or anything.” I said someone had suggested Brian might go and live with her, and asked
what Darryl would think of that. Jas appeared quite agitated but eventually said: “I shouldn’t
be telling you this. Never tell Darryl or anyone I said this, but May has been in and out of a
mental institution since she left the kids behind. Darryl said the grog did it to her. She’ll be
OK for a while then she has another relapse. It’s a type of psychosis. That’s why she never
has anything much to do with the kids. They don’t know. They just think she’s living away
somewhere. Darryl said he wouldn’t tell them because they were pretty fond of her, Brian
especially. Darryl said he never had the guts to break the news that their mum is sick, and
she’s never told them herself.”
Phone Call Darryl 17/4/2015:
Darryl rang saying he’s worried what is going to happen next. He said Brian came home and
told him Phil at the Co-op could help him find his mum. Darryl said: “I really don’t want that
happening. I think you know why. Jas told me she had told you about May. That’s OK, I
don’t want you telling Brian or the other kids, but it sounds like Brian will find out now and
there could be a blue when that happens. I agreed to visit Monday.
Home visit Darryl and Jasmine, 20/4/2015:
Darryl said he wants to know what to do. He thinks Brian will react badly when he finds out
May is in psychiatric care. “He’ll be wild with me for not telling him, but I don’t know what
he’ll do. He might try to see May. He could do anything. He might just go wild and do some
stupid things. He might hurt someone or himself. I just don’t know…”
I asked about the background so I could get a better picture. Darryl said: “well I met May
through the footy club. She knew I was from an aboriginal family even though I don’t have
anything to do with the local mob. She’s also Koori although you can’t tell by looking at her.
Her mob is from up on the Murray. Her mum was part of the Stolen Generation. She got
taken from her mob when she was little. It stuffed her up for life. She just never recovered.
She got pregnant when she was a teenager, had 4 or 5 kids and different partners. All the
kids, including May ended up in care at one time or another. And that stuffed May up too I
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reckon.”
“May’s mum died in 2011. She was only 45. She was an alcoholic and her liver gave out.
May cut up bad, even though she didn’t see her mum very often. It was all downhill from
there for us. May and I had made a pact that we would stay together as a family, but she
would hit the grog and accuse me of seeing other women. I never did. It got pretty rough
between us. I feel guilty about that because the kids knew what was going on, especially
Brian. He got in the middle of our fights a few times. He would always stick up for May and
try to help her. In the end I just couldn’t take it, and when Child Protection stepped in I
decided May had to go. She knew it too. She knew if she went that was the best chance we
had of keeping the kids, and she never wanted to see them in care because of what had
happened to her and her mum.”
Darryl continued: “I know what happens when aboriginal people drink too much-it kills them.
That’s one reason I don’t have much to do with the local community. There’s some big
drinkers in that lot and I don’t want to start that habit.”
Jasmine came in: “the way Daz and I see it now is we’ve both got a chance at a good family
life because we love each other and we are committed to the kids. No way is the welfare
coming in to split us up. The trouble is we don’t know what Brian will do, and Gary will follow
him one way or another. We don’t want them walking out and going wild, but we don’t know
what to do to stop it happening. We’ve even talked about going up to Queensland to be closer
to Daz’ family. That would be new to me, I don’t know much about aboriginal community life,
but maybe Brian and Gary would feel like they fitted in better there?”
Darryl said: “yeah but love, I don’t reckon Brian would ever desert his mum. They’ve always
been very close. May used to say Brian was going to be the one to kick the family trend. He
was going to be the kid who didn’t go into care because she had learned how to be a good
mum. It must have been hell for her when she left. I guess it drove her even more to
drinking, and now her mind’s buggered too.”
We agreed that I would ring Phil Anderson at the Co-op and put him in the picture so he could
help with Brian.
Phone Call, Phil Anderson 21/04/2015:
I rang Phil. He told me Brian had just left. He said he was pretty excited because Phil said he
could help Brian find his mum. I brought Phil up to speed with what Darryl and Jasmine had
said. Phil expressed his dismay at hearing May’s story. He said: “we just get so much
happening to our people now because of the way their families were treated. I hope you
understand what aboriginal people have to deal with. Anyway, I’m here to help Brian. I can’t
tell Darryl what to do, but it would be much better if Brian heard it from him than me. I’ll
support Brian and Gary, but who knows what they might do. Why don’t you find out where
May is so we know what we’re dealing with?” I agreed.
Phone Call, Darryl, 21/04/2015:
Darryl said he thinks May is living near Bendigo and receiving support from a psychiatric
service and maybe a community health services there. He gave me a contact number that he
had used before.
Phone call, Loddon Community Health 21/04/2015:
I spoke with a social worker and said I was enquiring about May Harrison. While I realised
confidentiality is an issue, I explained I had May’s former partner’s permission to share some
family information, and the social worker could decide if it was OK to exchange information.
The social worker agreed to listen without promising anything. She said: “look this is unusual,
but the reason I’m prepared to talk to you is because I’m working with May and she has asked
me to try to contact her kids. She has said it’s OK for me to talk to a professional about it, so
go ahead.”
I explained the situation. The social worker said: “OK, I can confirm May is receiving support
from here and that she is living in the community near her home town on the Murray. She’s in
touch with the aboriginal community there. She’s not in a good way. She has a serious
mental illness that requires her to be admitted to hospital from time to time and she’s battling
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an alcohol addiction. It’s a day-by-day proposition really. She has talked a lot about her kids
and how she misses them. On her worst days she talks about wanting to see them before she
dies. She’s afraid she’ll go the same way her mother did. Maybe there is some way we can
work together for the best outcome? I’m open to talking some more, but you probably need to
do some work with the people at your end first.”
