What's the Answer? - Create

Age• Age – not being 18 can limit what you can access as permission is required, or the service onlytargets specific age groups.Disadvantage due to care background• Penalties imposed upon young people by the ‘system’ which would be much less likely to havebeen incurred (or possibly, have less detrimental impact) if the young people did not have out-ofhomecare experience. This is in part attributed by them, to the likelihood of young people lackingadequate supports (such as parental or family financial support) as a consequence of their ChildProtection history and/or out-of-home care.Specialised Services and Mainstream ServicesSpecialised services• Specialised services were seen to: offer connection – including social connection – to people with similar life experiences promote acceptance and belonging to young people who may feel like they’re not the only onewhose been in care offer service staff who would ‘get me’ and understand the implications of lived careexperience, because they deal with those implications and experiences daily: we have manydifferent issues to young people who haven’t been in care attract adequate resources to provide effective services – as the special needs of young peoplepost-care were seen to be more onerous (and likely to be unsupported by mainstreamservices) have the ability to make a dramatic difference to my lives and situations given the service’sability to address care related issues with the young person. There should be a one stop shopwhich young people could access prior to leaving care to begin to identify needs and accessrequired information (this may include entitlements for leaving care plans or information onother services) and begin process of referrals etc. This is necessary as caseworkers tend not towork closely with this age group and they are not yet able to access after care services. be different for everyone. I like going to CREATE because it makes me feel comfortable to bearound other people who have the same experiences.• Specialised services attracted criticism because: there’s a huge stigmatisation / discrimination in that attending specialist services can attract anegative stigma which young people leaving care would be completely ‘over’ after getting outof State care it may have a negative outcome when trying to secure mainstream housing and jobs, throughthe prejudice placed upon us by the wider community in regards to trust, stability and abilityto function when it comes to health and getting a job, I want to just be around everyday people it makes us look different when we have to go to a “special” service tailor made for us there’s definitely a stigma there, that is why I prefer a mainstream service but it is also apersonal thing. Everyone is different.28