00:03 There was a young woman we were working with,
00:05 a client who was very complex
00:08 and was doing a lot of damage to herself
00:11 and to property.
00:14 And they renovated this house
00:15 and worked really hard to make it a good place for her.
00:17 And within a couple of days of her being there,
00:20 the client had done a lot of damage to the house.
00:22 So I said to our property person
00:26 we better go out and have a look
00:27 and see what we can do about this.
00:29 And we walked into the house
00:30 and she looked around and she went "ahh"
00:31 and I thought oh here it comes.
00:33 She's gonna start complaining about the damage
00:35 and she just said
00:36 "Oh, what's happened to this young woman?
00:39 "What terrible things have happened to her
00:41 "that this is what she needs to do?"
00:44 and she went straight then
00:45 into okay, so how can we make it better?
00:48 How can we make this house a safer place
00:50 for this young person to live in?
00:53 Because you know,
00:53 terrible things must have happened to her
00:55 for her to be like this.
00:57 So that was the moment
00:59 when I could really see sanctuary working
01:02 through the actions of that property person.
01:05 She got it,
01:06 she was trauma informed,
01:08 and her response was perfect
01:09 in terms of safety of young people.
01:11 And that's what it's all about.
01:18 I remember visiting the primary school.
01:21 And we had introduced community meetings
01:24 with the young people there,
01:26 ranging in age from six years old to 12, 13.
01:31 And a lot of the young people
01:32 that come to us have experienced,
01:34 or continue to experience trauma in their lives,
01:38 and are often referred to us
01:40 because they're having a lot of difficulty
01:42 engaging in education in a mainstream setting.
01:50 At the beginning of 2014,
01:51 they would all participate in the community meetings
01:54 and a lot of them would find that really difficult.
01:57 So some of them would hide under the tables,
02:00 some of them would hide in the corners
02:02 or run out of the room.
02:04 They found it really difficult to participate
02:06 in that sort of sharing.
02:08 Just to look and hear and see the journey
02:13 that those young people had made
02:16 and their capacity
02:18 to name their feeling
02:21 for the morning,
02:22 whether or not that was sadness,
02:24 whether or not it was fear,
02:26 whether or not it was happiness.
02:28 And then to talk about what their goals were
02:31 and then moving on from that,
02:33 who was going to be able to help them.
02:36 And for them to name those people.
02:38 I just thought how amazing is this?
02:44 - In terms of safety plans,
02:46 it's a great opportunity to utilize something
02:50 to maintain your self care.
02:52 Because you might find yourself in situations
02:55 of crisis that you feel you need to have something
02:59 that you can rely on to be able
03:00 to change that state for you.
03:06 But sometimes I think for the young people,
03:08 having something written down in words at times,
03:12 depending on their level
03:13 of intellectual functioning,
03:14 can be a little bit overwhelming.
03:15 And in terms of connecting with that,
03:17 it's really quite difficult.
03:18 So one of the staff members on our team
03:22 decided to be really creative
03:23 with some of the safety plan strategies,
03:26 and actually worked with a young person
03:28 to be able to put in a visual safety plan.
03:30 This staff member has a pug
03:32 and brings the pug into work on a fairly regular basis,
03:34 and it's a wonderful therapeutic thing for the kids
03:37 and they do love that,
03:38 but what she did was actually put in pictures
03:41 of pugs doing certain things.
03:43 So it had a pug with a pink wig on,
03:45 so that'll mean you go and dye your hair.
03:47 Now, if the young person then goes and looks at that,
03:49 has a laugh, is able to actually break this state of mind
03:52 and take themselves out of that anger
03:54 in the situation they're actually involved in,
03:56 it's having the actual impact that it needs.
03:58 So I think that's a thing
03:59 you can utilize the sanctuary commitments
04:03 and the sanctuary model,
04:05 but being able to actually make it live and breathe
04:07 and actually develop that
04:08 and push it farther,
04:09 think's really made something beautiful to behold
04:11 and we've now got the sanctuary commitment according to pug.
04:19 My favorite story about a red flag meeting
04:22 comes from our foster care team in New South Wales.
04:29 They were looking after three young people, siblings.
04:32 They're aged 11, 13, and 15.
04:35 Their mom was expecting a new baby
04:38 and they were really worried about the future,
04:40 the long term plans,
04:41 and the safety of their baby brother.
04:44 So a red flag meeting was called,
04:47 which brought together their case manager,
04:49 their foster carer and the three young people.
04:52 Their case manager helped the kids talk through
04:55 some of those really difficult emotions
04:58 and their feelings of letting their mum down,
05:00 as well as think about some solutions
05:03 and some ways to move forward.
05:05 The information that they shared in the meeting
05:07 informed the decision that their baby brother
05:10 was placed with them in long term foster care.
05:13 So that's a really great outcome
05:15 because their baby brother got to live with them.
05:18 And it's really important that siblings
05:20 in out of home care are able to stay together.
05:25 As a sanctuary organization,
05:27 I think it's really created a unique space
05:30 where children feel safe and heard
05:33 and able to voice their opinions and their feelings.
05:36 Yeah, I think sanctuary has enabled us
05:40 to create a safe refuge for the young people
05:44 that we support.
05:47 Yeah, the actual impact that we found sanctuary
05:49 to have with the young people
05:51 has been an absolutely wonderful thing.
05:53 And again, we've seen emotional development,
05:55 growth, maturity,
05:56 through a sense of safety and predictability
05:59 in what we provide for them and the care
06:01 that they have with MacKillop.