President's Message
8 February, 2010
There is little doubt that 2009 was a year of exceptional growth for the Association. The Biennial Conference was a success, as were the workshops and seminars that were offered throughout Australia and New Zealand. Our website was completely upgraded and two issues of our journal were published. ANZATSA’s first position paper and submission written and our membership remained constant.
Conference
The 5th biennial conference, “Responses to Sexual Abuse: Safeguarding Human Rights” was convened from 5-7 March, 2009. The conference was supported by 210 delegates from Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and Ireland. Opening Keynote Speaker, Professor Judy Atkinson of Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples set the mood for a conference characterised by openness and challenge. International keynotes Suzanne Brown-McBride (USA), Professor Tony Ward (Australia/New Zealand), and Dr Robin Wilson (USA) provided stimulating presentations focussing on human rights within the field of sexual abuse. This was built upon by the contributions of Invited Speakers: Marcella Leonard (Ireland), Jeff Nelson (WA), Alan Jenkins (SA), Prof. Patrick Keyzer (Qld), Dr Stephen Allnutt (NSW), and Stephen Cochrane (NSW). The conference was enriched by the contributions of many presenters and delegates.
It is noted that the 6th biennial conference is to take place in 2011 at Christchurch, New Zealand. Click HERE for more information.
Workshops and Seminars
Two workshops and four seminars were offered throughout Australia and New Zealand in 2009, in addition to the biennial conference.
- Associate Professor Stephen Smallbone and Sue Rayment-McHugh presented on “Theory Informed Assessment, Case Formulation & Treatment with Adults and Youth who have Committed Sexual Offences” in August at Melbourne.
- Dr Phil Rich presented two one day workshops in Sydney and Christchurch in October, 2009 on:
- “The comprehensive assessment of youths with problem sexual behaviours: processes and practices in risk and psychosocial assessment and implications for treatment and management”, and
- “Understanding and using attachment theory and a developmental model with youth who have sexually abused others”.
Quarterly Professional Development Meetings (formerly known as Cell Groups) continued in Sydney throughout the year. Topics included:
- “Opening the drawer - A roundtable discussion to explore issues relating to intervention with clients who take and use underwear belonging to other people”
- “Offender's Experience of the Child Protection Register: Does it Assist in Managing their Risk”, and
- “Risk Assessment and Risk Management in Relation to Child Sexual Abuse”
Website
Given the need to keep up with technology, the Association has acquired the skills of a professional IT development and maintenance business. As you will see from surfing through the ANZATSA website, Young Earth has built a highly efficient, cost-saving resource for the use of members. Members can now enjoy smooth online membership application and renewal procedures, online workshop registration, and ‘Member Only’ resources such as the ANZATSA Forum. RSS feeds are also available to keep members up to date with current information uploaded on to the site. Many exciting developments are planned for the site in 2010.
SAANZ
ANZATSA published two more editions of Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand throughout 2009. Given the total number of publications and the high quality of the journal, SAANZ has now been indexed and is available on academic databases. Through this, ANZATSA is making a contribution to international debate and knowledge in the area of sexual abuse. However, in order for SAANZ to remain viable, it is essential that members continue to submit articles for publication.
Position Papers
The Executive has aimed to develop Position Papers on issues of particular relevance to members over many years. However, there have been considerable difficulties in bringing this aim to fruition. The first position paper “Comment on the Community Management of Sexual Offenders” makes a valuable contribution to the Association and to the community at large. With position papers such as this, ANZATSA hopes to influence public debate and institutional practices based on research and our collective expertise.
Membership
The Association’s strategy of attracting membership by making it financially advantageous to do so has been a major success. This has been shown in the steady increase of membership applications. Improvements in the processing time for considering applications have been evident as a result of the commitment of the Membership Committee, in addition to the greater efficiency of the system due to the online facility.
Looking to 2010 and the future
Throughout 2009, ANZATSA has continued expand its focus on sexual harm to include working with survivors. Greater attempts were made to have victim/survivor content in this year’s conference. However, our success in this was limited by the number of abstracts submitted. It is hoped that victim/survivor content will increase in conferences and workshops as the number of ANZATSA members who work in the field builds.
Discussions have commenced between the Victorian Offender Treatment Association (VOTA) and us about the possibility of a merger of our organisations. There has been a longstanding Affiliation Agreement between VOTA and ANZATSA. The majority of VOTA members recently indicated support for the idea of a merger as a united association will be a stronger one. We are very excited and optimistic about this potential and await a final decision by VOTA members in early 2010.
A process has begun to build relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander professionals. Indigenous issues were strongly represented in the 2009 Conference. We hope to attract more indigenous professionals to the Association by building partnerships and making contributions where possible. To this end, ANZATSA made a submission to the Australian Crime Commission on the provision of services for children and adolescents with sexualised or sexual offending behaviours. The study has a particular interest in the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities. ANZATSA is currently assisting Professor Judy Atkinson of Gnibi, the College of Indigenous Australian Peoples, in the development of Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate courses anticipated to be offered at Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW Campus.
In November 2009, a call for expressions of interest was made to all members who are interested in forming ANZATSA interest groups. Suggested include:
- Working with adolescents
- Internet Offending
- Working with women and girls
- Working with children
- Private Practice
The Executive looks forward to receiving suggestions about other possible interest groups and hearing from volunteers who are willing to assist in their development.
2010 promises a wide array of benefits to members. Accordingly, I would like invite you to check this website regularly to for updates and suggest that the best way to do this is to click HERE to set up an RSS feed to your news reader.
Gerard Webster
President
