The number of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system in the state of Western Australian has reached “crisis levels,” according to this article from PerthNow. In fact, “Aboriginal children now make up 52 per cent of the children in care, despite being just 6.7 per cent of the state’s child population.” To address this issue, one Aboriginal group has proposed a plan to open children’s care homes, called “Healing Centres,” run by Aboriginal carers as an alternative to placing children in non-Aboriginal foster care homes. The Western Australian Council of Social Services is “calling for more early intervention so children can remain with their families, greater support for relative carers and for children as they transition out of care at age 18.”
