Don Tustin – författare

This book provides an overview of changes in legislation in Australia concerning both family law and child protection law. The topic is important as the Australian Government has identified that the rate of mental disorder in some cohorts of children is high and rising. These cohorts of children live in families where they are vulnerable because they are exposed to risk factors that can be changed by a coordinated effort from parents, therapists, and lawyers. 

The aim of the book is to identify psycho-legal concepts that need to be understood by professionals who work in the fields of child custody and child protection, and to bring these concepts together to improve coordination between the two fields of practice. The purpose of the book is to be a practice manual for professionals from the disciplines of law, social work, and psychologists who work in specialized legal roles dealing with families where children are vulnerable to developing mental health difficulties. 

Volume 2 of the book provides a perspective from a mental health clinician about concepts and principles that arise in Australian family-oriented courts, and that need to be shared between disciplines. This book proposes that some concepts be identified as psycho-legal as the concepts need to be shared between disciplines who work with court-involved families. The book also proposes that psycho-legal concepts be shared between the jurisdictions of child custody and child protection. In this book, proposals are made to improve collaboration between disciplines and to maximize the best interests of children.

This book provides an overview of changes in legislation in Australia concerning both family law and child protection law. The topic is important as the Australian Government has identified that the rate of mental disorder in some cohorts of children is high and rising. These cohorts of children live in families where they are vulnerable because they are exposed to risk factors that can be changed by a coordinated effort from parents, therapists, and lawyers. 

The aim of the book is to identify psycho-legal concepts that need to be understood by professionals who work in the fields of child custody and child protection, and to bring these concepts together to improve coordination between the two fields of practice. The purpose of the book is to be a practice manual for professionals from the disciplines of law, social work, and psychologists who work in specialized legal roles dealing with families where children are vulnerable to developing mental health difficulties. 

Volume 4 of the book provides a perspective from a mental health clinician about concepts and principles that arise in Australian family-oriented courts, and that need to be shared between disciplines. This book proposes that some concepts be identified as psycho-legal as the concepts need to be shared between disciplines who work with court-involved families. The book also proposes that psycho-legal concepts be shared between the jurisdictions of child custody and child protection. In this book, proposals are made to improve collaboration between disciplines and to maximize the best interests of children.

This book identifies a number of topics that arise in child protection where assessments of individual families are required.  The author opines that it is essential to use structured instruments when making assessments on complex topic about risk to reduce bias and to maximise objectivity.  The author summarises criteria that are required for an assessment instrument to be viewed by scientists as being objective.  The book proposes that introducing more objective assessment instruments into the field of child protection will: improve the focus and brevity of assessment reports; and enable setting of thresholds that distinguish between families who provide good-enough parenting from families who should be referred for parenting education, and from parents who are unfit parents.   The author identifies a number of topics that commonly arise in cases where maltreatment of children is alleged, reviews literature, and proposes checklists that can be used to gather data and to form a basis for developing validated assessment instruments for use in child protection.  The topics identified are relevant both to therapists as parenting practices can be changed using focused therapy, and for legal assessment purposes as topics have been shown to be related to legal concerns about the safety and welfare of children.  The overall aim of this book is to encourage greater use of scientific assessment approaches in the field of child protection.