Kinship Carers Victoria podcast series

The health of children in kinship care is of primary concern. Resources must continually be put into finding ways to improve health care outcomes for children in out of home care. In this podcast KCV speaks with Dr Karen McLean pediatrician with the Pathway to Good Health Clinic, the Sleep Disorders Clinic, the Royal Children's Hospital, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the Department of Pediatrics with the University of Melbourne.

Grandparents Victoria has just released a report of a survey titled 'The Roles That Grandparents Play'. Director of GPV, Anne McLeish, speaks about the reason for conducting the survey and about the findings, which highlight the varying roles grandparents play within Victorian families and the community.

In this podcast Director of Kinship Carers Victoria (KCV) Anne McLeish discusses how education is a key factor in ensuring positive outcomes for children as they mature into adults. KCV believes children have the right to a high-quality education that ensures all students experience success at school. This has lead KCV to call for reinforcement of the capacity of the state’s Lookout Education Support Centres in their efforts to support children and young people in out-of-home care. Murray Geddes, Principal of the Lookout Centre for the South Eastern Victoria Region, also explains the role the centres play and how kinship carers and the children in their care can benefit.

This podcast again addresses the issue of carer wellbeing. Director of Kinship Carers Victoria (KCV) Anne McLeish talks about how KCV works to better protect and promote carer wellbeing and about the various projects KCV employs to do so. We visit one of KCV's artist-in-residence sessions and talk to participants and coordinators about the value of the experience.

This podcast, the second in a series of 12, addresses the issue of carer wellbeing. Director of Kinship Carers Victoria (KCV) Anne McLeish talks about why the physical and emotional health of kinship carers and their access to support services is so important and how KCV works to better protect and promote carer wellbeing. Two kinship carers also speak about their personal and professional perspectives on this key element of kinship care.

Today’s program, the first in a series of 12 to be produced and published online over the next year, features an interview with Anne McLeish, Director of Kinship Carers Victoria, or KCV. Anne talks today about the aims of this podcast series, plus the mission and scope of activities of KCV, and she touches briefly on the range of issues facing both carers and the children in their care which will be addressed throughout this series.