Push for more foster carers as numbers decline
Tasmania's peak foster care body is calling for urgent reform of the system.
Carer numbers have fallen sharply and experts say this is having a devastating effect on the children involved.
By the time she was 14, Sarah had been placed with six different foster families.
"I just always thought, like, why, why am I being moved again? Why didn't it work out, what did I do wrong this time?" she said.
Early on she was separated from her brother and sister.
"We were placed in care together, and then all of a sudden we got split up. We didn't get told why, we lost contact for a couple of years," she said.
But Sarah said she was one of the lucky ones.
"I know someone who's 15 and she's had 48 placements so far," she said.
Carer Rosanne, whose full name has been suppressed for the safety of the children in her care, said the impact on children can be huge.
"That would be very traumatising. Very traumatising," she said.
"It's unfathomable that we allow that as a society. It's dumbfounding."
With five children of their own, Rosanne and her husband qualified to be foster carers a year ago.
"We got a phone call one day to say we've been approved and by the way would you take three children this afternoon," she said.
More psychological support needed: Foster Carers Association
Foster Carers Association of Tasmania CEO, Kim Backhouse, says more carers like Roseanne are being sought because numbers have been declining.
"There's just a lack of carers in the system, and some of them need respite. The retention rate is dropping 40 per cent nationally," she said.
Ms Backhouse has launched a campaign to increase carer numbers and to ensure children get psychological support as soon as they are placed with families, rather than forcing carers to foot the bill.
"They're significantly out of pocket with high-needs children [having] a whole range of special needs," she said.
Deputy Secretary for Children at the Department of Health and Human Services, Tony Kemp says the wellbeing of children in care is of utmost importance.
"When a child comes into care, and regularly thereafter, there is a process of assessing their emotional, physical, health, developmental and educational needs," he said.
But Rosanne says the system is difficult to use and puts a lot of strain on the carer.
"I can't change appointments for my children. I'm not authorised to make appointments," she said.
"That's been a frustration to me but lots and lots of appointments has been more the case than [having] the ability to go to appointments."
