Children and young people spend significant amounts of their lives online in the cyber world, but how do we ensure that their online experiences are safe? There are so many issues to consider: how do you tackle cyber bullying, deal with the threat of grooming of children, what is the right amount of screen time, how do you create a safe gaming environment?

In this podcast Susan McLean of Cybersafety Solutions answers these and many other questions around helping children and young people to navigate the online world safely. Susan is acknowledged as Australia’s foremost expert in the area of cyber safety and young people.  

What is neurodiversity? This is a term describing the idea that people experience and interact with the world in many varied ways but there is no one ‘right’ way of thinking, learning, or behaving, with these differences not viewed as deficits.

Nikki Valentini, Clinical Nutritionist, functional medicine practitioner, and director of SuperNature Nutrition, joined Kinship Carers Victoria again to speak in depth about the effect of diet and nutrition on children with autism, ADHD, OCD and other manifestations of neurodiversity.

In this podcast we speak with Victoria’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Liana Buchanan, about the Commission’s ‘Let Us Learn’ inquiry report, tabled in the Victorian parliament in November 2023.

The report shows that the education engagement and outcomes for children and young people in out-of-home care trail significantly behind those of their peers.

Liana explains why the Commission conducted the report and outlines its reaction to the findings. She also discusses some of the Commission’s most pressing recommendations resulting from the inquiry.

Throughout our lives, grief is an unavoidable and essential part of what it is to be human. When individuals and families experience a loss, every member of the family can feel and process their grief in different ways. Grandparents, parents or carers face the difficulty of managing their caring role while knowing how to help children understand their grief – all whilst also trying to accept and deal with their own feelings.

In this podcast we speak with Janice Butera, specialist grief practitioner with Grief Australia, who shares with us her knowledge about grief and loss and the challenges that can occur for families when faced with loss. Janice also offers some strategies for families to use in navigating their way through these difficult periods.

Access or contact visits are where children in kinship care can spend time and engage with members of their biological or extended family. The visits can be formal or informal, and sometimes they are supervised by a professional, such as a child protection worker or agency worker, or even by the kinship carer themselves.

In this podcast, we spoke with Adam Lyons, Managing Director of Lancaster Consulting, who addressed some of the more common issues carers face in preparing the children in their care for access visits and outlined strategies for debriefing children afterwards.

What does the latest research tell us about the benefits of play for the wellbeing of children and young people? The February 2023 edition of the Royal Children’s Hospital National Child Health Poll – Australian Families: How we play – has produced some findings of great interest to kinship carers.

In this podcast we speak with paediatrician, researcher and child health advocate Dr Anthea Rhodes, the founding director of the poll. Anthea has clinical interests in the health needs of the vulnerable child, with expertise in child behaviour and development.

What are the latest trends in nutrition? What does recent research say about what and how we should eat? And what the children in our care, in particular those children with neurodevelopmental disorders, should eat?

In this podcast we speak again with Nikki Valentini, Clinical Nutritionist, functional medicine practitioner and director of SuperNature Nutrition on a broad range of current topics regarding nutrition. Nikki answers some of the more common questions from carers and others regarding this topic.

In this podcast we speak with Director of Kinship Carers Victoria, Anne McLeish, who explains the importance of learning and development for kinship carers.

We also interview one Victorian carer, who tells us about the types of things she realised she needed to learn and the support she sought out once she became a kinship carer.

And we hear from Adam Lyons, Managing Director of Lancaster Consulting, who have been providing specialised support services and training for kinship and foster carers for well over a decade. Adam describes the program they run through Carer KaFE and the workshops and training they provide for carers.

Sleep plays a vital part in our wellbeing - so how do we get the right amount of it?

Clinical psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth, author of Deliberately Better Sleep, talks with KCV about the three major factors affecting our sleep and issues such as waking up at night, napping, the right amount of sleep and the long-term effects of not getting enough sleep. This podcast also includes interviews with two carers, who share their personal stories around their sleeping patterns and how they manage this whilst dealing with their kinship carer responsibilities.

In a recent survey on stress and wellbeing conducted by the Australian Psychological Society, four in five participants found activities like listening to music and spending time on a hobby were effective ways of managing stress. Finding an enjoyable pastime can also enhance wellbeing, improve social connections, and even stave off depression or anxiety. 

In this latest carer wellbeing podcast, KCV spoke with two carers about their carer situations and what part hobbies and other meaningful pursuits played in their lives and learned about the benefits these activities bring them.

This podcast outlines the benefits of exercise, with suggestions for carers on different types of moderate exercise and how they can incorporate them into their lives. Includes advice from fitness expert Nic Dorian, plus interviews with kinship carers.