Mental health issues in child protection cases: A study of protective cases in the Family Division of the Children’s Court, Victoria

Abstract

This article discusses the problems which confronted the Family Division of the Children’s Court, Victoria, in the management of cases in which there were mental health issues. Mental health issues were one of the major reasons for protective concerns in one in four cases presented to the Court during this study. They were cases which were often difficult to decide both because magistrates did not have knowledge about mental health problems and because there was a lack of expert information to assist them. Contributions by specialist mental health practitioners to the assessment of child protection applications were negligible and this meant the mental health problems were not identified for the Court. A more cooperative system which allows mental health professionals to work closely with the child protection service would be of greater assistance to the Court.