Kinship care, adoption and permanency health assessments — OSCE

Candidate brief

You are the paediatric registrar in the community clinic. A 4-year-old Aboriginal boy was placed in formal kinship care with his maternal grandmother two days ago under a short-term child-protection order, after his mother's admission. The grandmother has brought him for his entry health assessment. He has no available health record, his immunisation status is unknown, and his grandmother is exhausted and describes him as 'wild', difficult to settle, and 'not himself'. The child-protection agency has confirmed that day-to-day parental responsibility, including consent for routine care and immunisation, currently rests with the grandmother under the order. [1] [9]

You have 8 minutes to explain to the grandmother what the health assessment involves, what happens next, how to understand his behaviour, and how his cultural connection will be supported — while building a collaborative, non-judgemental relationship. [8]