This paper will focus on four inter-related areas which it is considered are indicative of emergent trends in the child welfare field, The areas to be discussed are advances in our understanding of child development; how these advances link to social policy issues; factors influencing the delivery of services and finally some training issues which arise from all of these items.

These issues are discussed with a hope to maintain both an historical and comparative perspective, in relation to alternative child welfare systems.

The first part of this article, describing the financial reporting system, the Children's Welfare Association of Victoria has developed for Victorian Child Welfare Agencies, explained the motivation in setting the system up, the objectives and achievements of the system, and gave some broad information about funding proposals that have stemmed from the analysis of financial data through the system.

Forty first-time mothers were randomly allocated to two groups, half who received the service of a home visitor and half who did not. The home visitor commenced visitation during the last month of pregnancy and continued until the baby was three months old, visiting or contacting the mother approximately once weekly. Pre and post measures of self-esteem, anxiety, locus of control and acceptance were taken, the only significant difference between the treated and the control group was a lower trait anxiety in the target group. However, the other results were in the predicted direction. While all of the mothers requested the service, those mothers who received the service stated they valued it highly. Three mothers in the target group were identified as being “at risk” and received appropriate treatment; they had not been located by any of the health services with whom they were in contact. The present study raised a number of issues associated with the delivery of such primary prevention services, particularly the need for more adequate program evaluation.

If you are the mother of a youngster victim of the hyperactive child syndrome, you need to have certain resources, qualities, and characteristics if you are to survive. You need, for example, the wisdon of a Solomon, the patience of a Job, the physical stamina of a stevedore, and the calm and control of a saint. You will also need some information, some support and understanding from others, and a refuge to which to flee when you have been pushed to the ragged-edge of your endurance and coping. These are the basics, but as your hyperactive child moves along the path of childhood, the additional things you need to be will become readily apparent. You will feel elation with an accomplishment, near despair when your efforts seem abortive, and through all, an overwhelming fatigue and exhaustion. Some will try to understand and to help; others will not even try. Indeed, you will suffer subtle and oblique comments suggestive of the thought that some shortcoming in your mothering ability has caused the problem. Any confidence you had as a mother will be shaken each day. And, as if it were not enough to live and be mother to a difficult child who resists your efforts, you will find yourself in serious contention with your husband and, perhaps, other members of your family. You will feel isolation and live with the suspicion that you are, in some way, a slightly defective mother.