Kathy Karatasas leads drive for multicultural approach to care of children from CALD communities

Kathy Karatasas, the director of the Multicultural Child and Family Services programme, is a finalist in the “Influencer of the Year” category of the Third Sector Awards 2021. She spoke to Neos Kosmos about her child care work within in the multicultural communities of New South Wales and most recently in Victoria.

The welfare of children has been paramount in Kathy Karatasas’ working life since she began her career as a social worker specialising in child protection at the tender age of 21. She has also worked in women’s health, helping teenage mothers, women diagnosed with cancers or parents dealing with the loss of their babies.

“In the 1980s these were new areas. I was with young mothers in the delivery ward and with young people as they lived their last days through palliative care. I learnt how to talk to parents who had lost their baby; I remember taking the baby’s body to parents and spending time with them holding the baby and their grief,” she told Neos Kosmos.

She was to become Project Manager in New South Wales’ Department of Family and Community Services and in the 1990s moved to head a non-government agency running a number of homes for adolescents.

Now as the director of the SSI (Settlement Services International) Multicultural Foster Care Services programme based in Sydney, Ms Karatasas is on the shortlist for the “Influencer of the Year” category for the Third Sector Awards 2021.

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“The nomination (for the Third Sector award) is a privilege having worked 30 years in the sector and believing in the value of connecting with people of different cultures and backgrounds. People experience life differently because of language and culture.

“The programme I work with is now eight years old and started after many years of strong advocacy to government and organisations on the importance of culture.

“Children were going to foster families who meant well but were not connecting with the languages, cultures and religions (into which the children were born),” Ms Karatasas said.

Fostering a child is a rewarding but also very complex process.

She said the cultural background of a child was very important and was even more so if a child was separated from its parents and placed into care.

“We became the first organisation in NSW to promote a multicultural foster care services that finds carers who share the same culture as the children or who are culturally responsive able to connect a child to their cultures such as cooking cultural meals taking the child to religious or cultural events.

Many of the children come from homes where there is domestic violence, drug/alcohol abuse, or mental health problems.

“The first option is to help the families make the changes so that they can resume full care of the child. Or (if that option fails) to ensure the foster family continues the care of the child and get the support and help needed and also to help the child’s family to keep in touch with the child.”

Ms Karatasas said the programme started with 30 children when it was launched in 2013. To date it has cared for 500 children from over 70 different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It looks after about 200 children at any one time. the program is funded by the NSW government and through the SSI, it has also launched in Out of Home Care programme in Victoria which is funded by that state’s government. There were 15 in the team when the programme started, now there are 85 members.

“We came into being when communities were complaining that their children were being taken into care and they did not know where the children were being cared.”

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Parents can feel great shame, stigma and isolation from communities when their children come into care

“Part of our role is to talk to the CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) communities to help them the understand child protection concerns and family’s struggles and also for communities not to stigmatise children who are with foster carers and not with their biological families. If the children are connected to their community it can help them feel connected and to thrive.’

The Multicultural Foster Care Services’ role includes talking government and non-government officials on how to approach CALD families and to notice their own biases and judgements.

She said, by way of example, that it can be normal for the older children in CALD families to look after their younger siblings when their parents have to go to work and was not a form of child abuse. Some families used suction cups (vendouzes) as a traditional way of treating colds and other ailments and the marks that were left were sometimes interpreted as signs of abuse.

“We talk to social workers to be more curious and find out more before making judgements. There is a lot of work for (social) workers and carers to overcome their prejudices and judgements.

“I expect all our staff to help each of our children to be connected with at least one element of their culture, through language, religion or traditions. It is a doable target.”

“There is so much value in keeping the links with their families. It is the child’s choice how he or she nurtures that connection. It is not up to the workers. We need to be curious about the children’s background and cultural connections. Unless you believe in this value, you can be distracted by other issues. Understanding your culture and history influences your sense of belonging and wellbeing,” said Ms Karatasas.

Kathy Karatasas with her late father, Haralambos, who died earlier this year, aged 93. He lived next door to his daughter and was a key figure in the lives of her four children. Ms Karatasas helped him look after her mother Eleni in her final years. Photo Supplied.