News

Professor Tony Attwood will discuss how children with Autism can be supported in a post-separation context, including developing parenting agreements/parenting orders that are in the child’s best interest.

Presented on 3 December 2020, Tony’s webinar is available until 18 December 2020.

View Recorded Webinar

This webinar was hosted by Albury Wodonga Family Law Pathways Network, auspiced by Upper Murray Family Care.

Professor Tony Attwood

Professor Tony Attwood is a clinical psychologist who has specialised in autism spectrum disorders since he qualified as a clinical psychologist in England in 1975. He currently works in his own private practice and is also an adjunct professor at Griffith University, Queensland and a senior consultant at the Minds and Hearts clinic in Brisbane. His book ‘Asperger’s Syndrome – A Guide for Parents and Professionals’ has sold over 500,000 copies and has been translated into 27 languages. His subsequent book, ‘The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome’, published in October 2006 has sold over 300,000 copies and has been translated into 18 languages, and is one of the primary textbooks on Asperger’s syndrome, otherwise known as Autism Spectrum Disorder – Level 1. He has had several subsequent books published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Future Horizons Inc. and Guilford Press.

Tony has been invited to be a keynote speaker at many Australasian and international conferences. He presents workshops and runs training courses for parents, professionals and individuals with Asperger’s syndrome all over the world and is a prolific author of scientific papers and books on the subject. He has worked with many thousands of individuals of all ages with Asperger’s syndrome or Autism.

Further recorded presentations and live webinars by Professor Tony Attwood and Dr Michelle Garnett on various topics relating to Autism Spectrum Disorder for families, carers and professionals can be sourced from www.attwoodandgarnettevents.com

PowerPoint Presentation

Supporting Children With Autism

UMFC’s 36th AGM took place on 29 October 2020 at 27 Stanley Street, Wodonga.

Highlights included Greg Pearl receiving Life Membership of UMFC in recognition of his long-serving support to the agency, and the presentation of the Betty McClean volunteer of the year award to Deb Donovan for her 12 years of volunteering with Interchange.

Deb wasn’t able to make it on the day, so Jan caught up with Deb later. Her interview is added to the end of the AGM. You can skip to it here.

Scientists have learned that neuropsychology, social cognition, and cultural factors affect decision-making. Two types of neuro-psychologically rooted bias can impact how we reason, infer and decide. Cognitive bias refers to heuristics, such as anchoring or confirmatory bias, which contribute to oversimplifying complex matters. Implicit bias refers to social attitudes that result in rapid, and involuntary assessments resulting from feelings and attitudes that operate out of our awareness or the lack of understanding of how people whose experiences are different may affect those inferences and decisions. This webinar will explore such biases and research-based debiasing strategies.

Learning Objectives

Attendees at this program will be able to:

• Understand and manage the threats to fairness, impartiality and neutrality in family law work
• Recognize the need to embrace complexity and consider all relevant family issues rather than a “single story”
• Manage the impact of our own values, experiences, and feelings when formulating conclusions and making recommendations and decisions in family law matters

Presented on 13 October 2020, Philip’s webinar is available until 28 October 2020.

View Recorded Webinar

This webinar was hosted by Albury Wodonga Family Law Pathways Network, auspiced by Upper Murray Family Care.

Dr Philip Stahl

Dr. Philip Stahl is a forensic psychologist in private practice, living in Maricopa County, AZ, who provides consultation and expert witness testimony in child custody litigation throughout the United States and North America. His primary area of specialty is relocation, including complex international relocations. Dr. Stahl conducts trainings throughout the United States and internationally for attorneys, child custody evaluators, judges, and others working with high conflict families of divorce. He is on the faculty of National Judicial College in Reno Nevada, teaching domestic violence to judges since 2000, and he regularly speaks at state judicial colleges. He has been providing training through AU AFCC and other organizations in Australia since 2011.

Along with his teaching, Dr. Stahl has written extensively on high-conflict divorce and custody evaluations. He is the author of Conducting Child Custody Evaluations: From Basic to Advanced Issues, (Sage Publications, 2010) and Parenting After Divorce, 2nd Edition (Impact Publishers, 2008) and is co-author of Forensic Psychology Consultation in Child Custody Litigation: A Handbook for Work Product Review, Case Preparation, and Expert Testimony, (American Bar Association Section of Family Law, 2013).

His most exciting project has been his newest book, written with his daughter Rebecca Stahl, JD, LLM, titled, Representing Children in Dependency and Family Court: Beyond the Law, published by the ABA Family Law Section in June 2018.

PowerPoint Presentation

Decision making in the future

In this one-hour webinar, Dr Rachel Carson presents on the key findings from the ‘Children and young people in separated families: Family Law system experiences and needs’ project, a qualitative study commissioned and funded by the Australian Government through the Attorney-General’s Department. The study aimed to investigate the experiences and needs of children and young people whose parents had separated and had accessed the family law system. This webinar explores the insights from participating children and young people about the issues that are important to them in making post-separation parenting arrangements as well as their experiences with, and reflections on, family law system services. Rachel also provides a snapshot of effective professional practice from the perspective of children and young people.

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and may not reflect the views of the Australian Institute of Family Studies and the Australian Government, Attorney-General’s Department.

Members may access a recording of quotes from the Children and Young People in Separated Parents Study at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vaw_hVOoO8

This webinar was hosted by Albury Wodonga Family Law Pathways Network, auspiced by Upper Murray Family Care.

Rachel Carson

Dr Rachel Carson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

Questions and answers

Q&A

In this 90 minute webinar, Robyn Bradey explains what vicarious trauma is, and gives practical strategies for managing it. She also provides extra strategies for working from home.

This webinar was hosted by Albury Wodonga Family Law Pathways Network, auspiced by Upper Murray Family Care.

Robyn Bradey

Robyn Bradey (B.Soc.Stud.SYD.) is a mental health accredited social worker with over 40 years’ experience, 29 of those in private practice. She has been a youth worker, a hospital social worker and an administrator. Robyn offers professional supervision to a wide range of health, welfare and legal workers. She has been a counsellor, specialising in loss, grief, trauma, work related stress and injury. Since 2008, she has specialised in training, consulting and supporting the legal profession in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Robyn is currently working as a consultant and trainer for the Federal Court of Australia, the UK Bar and Inns of Court, the New Zealand Law Society, the Bar Association of NSW, the Law Society of NSW, NSW Community Legal Services and a large number of other agencies and organisations. She has written five books and numerous professional papers.