The children and young people
When children or young people have complex needs, strong interagency collaboration and a high level of expertise is needed.
Identifying children and young people with complex needs
A combination of factors - including life experiences, diagnoses and problem behaviours - make it challenging for agencies to address the young person's needs.
Government agencies routinely deal with complex situations, with children and young people who have experience neglect, abuse and trauma. While some are resilient and adjust with relative ease, others don't. Those who don't tend to have:
- repeated placement breakdown
- disruption at school
- experienced ongoing failure and increased stress.
It is difficult to meet their needs. We know that young people who receive HCN funding have, on average:
- 6 adverse life experiences (e.g. abuse / neglect)
- 6 problem behaviours (e.g. violent / aggressive behaviour)
- 3 diagnoses (e.g. attachment disorder).
