Teenshare is a programme run by Anglicare that recruits and trains foster carers to share their family home with young people, aged between 12 years through to 17 years, on a short or long-term basis.
Teenshare is a part of a number of services that work in the area of foster care. The Department for Community Development (DCD) offer and fund foster care services throughout the state. DCD is responsible for the health and welfare of all children up to the age of 18. The foster care service it provides is general to cover all ages of children and short and long term care. DCD also funds other non-government services to provide more specialist care. Wanslea Family Services provides emergency, short-term care for children 0 to 11, Mercy Community Services provide long term care to children from 0 to 18 years and Mofflyn provide foster care to children with disabilities.
Teenshare specialises in emergency, short term care of adolescents. The service operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the metropolitan area.
The majority of families go through some sort of crisis or trauma at various times. Some families however, are not able to cope as well as others, and may not have adequate support systems to help them through difficult times. Foster care is one way to provide assistance to children and young people by offering an alternative place to stay when they cannot live at home. This allows time for the young person and their family to work through their issues, so they can return home if possible.
There are many reasons why young people may need to stay in foster care. The main reasons are because the young person may be experiencing severe conflict at home with their family or because a parent may need respite whilst they are in hospital. A young persons safety may also be at risk from either sexual or physical abuse and neglect and as a result they need somewhere safe to stay.
These are some of the main reasons why young people will need alternative care. Depending on these circumstances, the length of time a teenager stays in foster care can vary from one night to four weeks and in some cases months or years.
Young people entering our programme come from all different situations and backgrounds. Having to leave their home and enter into foster care can be very difficult to deal with. As a result, young people have variety of different emotions or behaviours that they will display.
Where possible a teenager will return home to their parents. If this is not possible, alternative accommodation will be sought. Where appropriate young people will be encouraged to keep in contact with their families and all parties involved negotiate this contact.
Teenshare operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to be able to respond to young people in crisis situations. During working hours, referrals are received from DCD and after working hours and weekends, Crisis Care refer to the programme. Referrals are not accepted directly from young people or their families.
Teenshare workers are available to provide support twenty-four hours a day to carers and young people. Carers receive support in the form of visits to their home and regular telephone contact. Teenshare workers aim to provide practical assistance to carers that is responsive to their needs.
Caring for teenagers is hard and challenging work. Because of this a commitment to training is required by all foster carers. As a part of becoming a carer, preparation training is compulsory and must be completed before commencing fostering. A series of training modules have been created to address the different issues that fostering raises. Teenshare supports all carers in completing training by meeting the costs involved.
Teenshare foster carers are paid a subsidy to cover costs involved in accommodating a young person such as - food, water, electricity, phone, travel and some personal incidentals. This subsidy is not seen as taxable income and is currently at the rate of $192.50 per week with $10.00 being for pocket money for the young person.
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