A South Australian boy named Zhane Chilcott ended his life after bouncing from eighteen different foster homes.
According to the reports, the teenager, Zhane had been failed on several occasions by many people who were responsible to look after him.
As per Daily Mail, “But State Coroner David Whittle has stopped short of ruling that the 13-year-old’s death was preventable,”
“He said the circumstances related to the death of Zhane Chilcott in 2016 were complex and multifactorial, and the question of whether the boy’s death could have been avoided was therefore complicated.”
“Mr. Whittle said among the failures in Zhane’s case were missed opportunities for early intervention before he went into care, missed opportunities to deal with the trauma associated with multiple placements, and, in the period close to his death, multiple missed opportunities to address his psychiatric issues.”
As per David Whittle, the matter is looking very difficult, and he cannot say anything with surety about Zhane’s condition and the early inventions could be saved him or not.
“An analysis of those missed opportunities does not lead with certainty to the conclusion that Zhane’s death by suicide was preventable.”
“I do find, however, that there were a number of missed opportunities in Zhane’s case to moderate the chances of death by suicide,” the Coroner told. “The cumulative effect of all those failings was to increase his risk of suicide. Had those failings not occurred, it can only be said that the risk of Zhane taking his own life must have been reduced.”
In July 2016, the boy took his own life when he was living in a Residential Care Unit in Adelaide’s south.
Daily Mail wrote, the Counsel assisting Sally Giles revealed that the boy had been living in different foster homes since he was a year old.
“She said his short life was marked by significant placement instability leading to minimal opportunity to develop meaningful and secure relationships with the adults who cared for him. Ms. Giles said Zhane had also suffered from a myriad of behavioral issues in care and at school, sparked by significant traumas and a lack of help at critical moments in his life.”
“At one stage, he was placed with an experienced foster carer in SA’s mid-north where he was said to have flourished, had begun to attend school regularly, and had been nominated for a leadership role.”
But, when the authorities denied paying extra funds to him who was caring for him, he decided to not look after Zhane if the funds would not increase.
According to the Daily Mail, “Instead, Zhane was placed in a residential facility at a greater cost over a three-month period than what the carer had asked for over a full year,”
As per Coroner David Whittle, a risk register should be made in state-owned foster care homes to notice risk, threat, or self-harm activities, as it can help prevent such types of incidents.
“He also called for a review of payments to family-based foster carers in a bid to increase the number of people willing to take children in and recommended children in care have their contact with biological family members considered in a meaningful way at least once every 12 months.”
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