Raising the Rug with Amber

14/02/2026

The part of healing that doesn't really get talked about.
Breaking the cycle is not all sparkles and rainbows, it's hard work and it never stops.
It's questioning every thing you do as a person and a parent, not knowing if you're doing it right.
Breaking the cycle is amazing and so worth it, but it's not something that happens overnight and it's not something that ever stops.

13/02/2026

📣 The FINAL final straw! 📣

The realisation that even a near d*ath of a young person was not enough for management to uphold their duty of care, to the young person or to the frontline workers, was the absolute end for me!

I will be following this up soon with the response I got to this email and the reason I mention the lead up to this event being so critical. If things were done properly, this incident - and many others - wouldn't occur.

28/01/2026

This week is such an exciting week for our family, as we get ready for the start of school and finalise all the last minute things the kids needs before they go back 🥰🥳

This week I am also thinking of all the kids in any form of Out of Home Care that are returning to, or starting at a new school.

💥 The ones who are going to have to try make new friends again because they keep getting moved from one school to another when their placement changes.
💥 The ones who have been wearing a dirty, ripped or out of size uniform for way too long because no one has taken enough notice to realise they need new things.
💥 The ones who don't even know if their enrolment has been processed yet because they're waiting for their case manager to finalise all the paperwork.
💥 The ones who are starting a new school after being removed from their families, their siblings, their local community and everything else they know.
💥 The ones who are 'lucky' enough to have all the material things they need, but are returning to school while trying to navigate a life that a lot of adults couldn't even handle.
💥 The ones who live in residential care and have to hope the staff have organised a way for them to get to school, while also hoping nothing occurs in the home overnight with the other young people that will prevent a carer from being able to take them, or result in them being late again.

Also thinking of all the carers, both professional and home-based, and the Case Managers, who have been pulling their hairs out trying to get things approved by their management and Child Protection.

There is a reason the educational outcomes for young people in Out of Home Care are so poor.
There is also SO MUCH MORE that could be done to improve this - starting with the absolute basics!

27/01/2026

Nothing like being supported at work! Especially when you're working with our most vulnerable young people 🤯

When this is what they're willing to put in writing, just imagine the things they're trying to cover up.

I'm so glad those in positions of power and those who were able to make the necessary decisions, to keep the young people and frontline workers safe, decided to do the absolute bare minimum. While they did not have to worry about getting high FROM THEIR WORKPLACE.
I'm also glad they were able to go home and sleep in a drug-free environment. While they decided it was okay for the young people to continue living in such an environment.
Not only the young people that were already living there, but moving in more young people with EXTREMELY complex daily mental health struggles.
Nothing says we care about your significant mental health challenges like moving a young person into a house that has not only tested positive for methamphetamine, but returned results at a level of over 8X the Australian Safe Standard.

23/01/2026

📣 PART THREE 📣

My first experience of working with a young person under 10 and the supervisors response to dealing with their distress.

This was not an isolated incident. There is a perception that residential care is for young people over 12 years old. This is simply, and heartbreakingly, not true. Myself and my ex colleagues worked with many young people under 10 years old.

The response to most of these very young people when they are overwhelmed and experiencing distress is disgusting and further installs in them that adults are not safe people.
The state, and some outsourced agencies, have the lives of our most vulnerable little people in their hands, and instead of providing them safe and secure placements they are providing more trauma, further neglect and abandonment and allowing the Internal Working Models of these young people to continue to be destroyed 💔

23/01/2026

📣 PART TWO 📣

My first experience of working with a young person under 10 and the supervisors response to dealing with their distress.

This was not an isolated incident. There is a perception that residential care is for young people over 12 years old. This is simply, and heartbreakingly, not true. Myself and my ex colleagues worked with many young people under 10 years old.

The response to most of these very young people when they are overwhelmed and experiencing distress is disgusting and further installs in them that adults are not safe people.
The state, and some outsourced agencies, have the lives of our most vulnerable little people in their hands, and instead of providing them safe and secure placements they are providing more trauma, further neglect and abandonment and allowing the Internal Working Models of these young people to continue to be destroyed 💔

23/01/2026

📣 PART ONE 📣

My first experience of working with a young person under 10 and the supervisors response to dealing with their distress.

This was not an isolated incident. There is a perception that residential care is for young people over 12 years old. This is simply, and heartbreakingly, not true. Myself and my ex colleagues worked with many young people under 10 years old.

The response to most of these very young people when they are overwhelmed and experiencing distress is disgusting and further installs in them that adults are not safe people.
The state, and some outsourced agencies, have the lives of our most vulnerable little people in their hands, and instead of providing them safe and secure placements they are providing more trauma, further neglect and abandonment and allowing the Internal Working Models of these young people to continue to be destroyed 💔

17/01/2026

Flashback to the time I had to let the Health and Wellbeing officer know what the culture was like in the Western region.

The response to this email was thanking me for making them aware and that it had been escalated to their manager.
To no ones surprise, I never heard back from that manager.

This was the first time I had utilised discretionary leave after having a disclosure made to me that affected me more than I would like to admit.

This was not however the first time I was entitled to discretionary leave; the lack of support myself and my colleagues received during my time with this organisation - including 3 extremely dangerous situations whilst I was pregnant - is absolutely disgusting.

The lack of support the young people received is even more disgusting!

16/01/2026

💥CONFIDENTIALITY 💥

When we have people working for organisations who are happy to breach young people's confidentiality and we have organisations who are happy to try sweep those breaches under the rug - WHAT MESSAGE IS THAT SENDING TO THE YOUNG PEOPLE WE'RE MEANT TO CARE FOR???

I personally know that having your confidentiality broken by someone in a position of power has massive and long-lasting impacts, and the breaches that occurred over my time were absolutely minuscule compared to the ones that I am talking about.

These young people deserve to have someone they can trust. They deserve respect, dignity and compassion. They absolutely do not deserve to have their most traumatic times in life repeated to their peers. They do not need their peers knowing about their family dynamics UNLESS that is something they themselves wish to discuss.

For an organisation who has ACCOUNTABILITY as one of their values, I'm happy to be the one who holds them accountable.

11/01/2026

Another article done by the fabulous ABC reporters I worked with, outlining the significant levels of s*xual exploitation that occur - with young people in residential care being targeted at higher rates by these older disgusting men due to their vulnerability.
Although the outcome for this young person may be different to others, the lead up to that outcome is very similar.
This is the reality of residential care.
This is what young people are going through every day.
Not just in this region either.
We are taking young people away from their families, from every connection they've ever known - telling their families they can't do a good enough job.

I'm very much aware that intervention is sometimes necessary! Although, it''s time to ask, is the state doing any better of a job when outcomes for kids in residential care, and most other forms of Out of Home Care, are so poor??
When those who sit in positions of management are so willing to 'sit with this risk' as if the risk they are so happy to sit with does not genuinely affect human lives.

Child safety experts say the case of a 13-year-old girl who became pregnant while in state care highlights the dangers of the residential system.

10/01/2026

After the ABC article was released last week, I want to highlight very clearly that the dr*g issues were definitely not the final straw or what caused me to resign! Rather, multiple and serious failures were what contributed to that decision.