> Fiona DeLacy is a registered nurse and counsellor, whose background is in mental health and addiction services.

Rebecca is a 15-year-old Karen girl. She is the eldest of 4 children. Rebecca spent the first 9 years of her life in Burma, but eventually her parents fled to Thailand. They lived in hiding for some time in separate places, with Rebecca going to live with her mother and baby sister. When Rebecca was about 11, her mother disappeared after going out to look for illegal work. She has not been heard of since. Rebecca’s father gathered all the children together and managed to get them into a refugee camp. While in the camp, Rebecca went to school and did many of the duties involved in looking after her 3 younger siblings. Neighbours and relatives living in the camp also helped to look after the young children, and Rebecca and her siblings were particularly close to her grandmother (her father’s mother). Two years ago, Rebecca and her family were offered resettlement in Australia.

Like most newly arrived families, Rebecca and her family made connections with the local torture and trauma support agency. They attended the medical service, became clients of the early intervention service, and participated in some of the activities offered by the community development team. The younger children attended the children’s holiday program and received support from the children’s counsellor/advocate. The early intervention counsellor/advocate visited Rebecca at the Introductory English Centre, where she was settling in well and was very motivated to learn English.

However, after the family had been in Australia for about a year, Rebecca’s father was involved in a serious car accident and suffered brain damage. He was hospitalised for a long period, during which Rebecca left school in order to stay with him in hospital as much as possible. She felt very strongly that this was what she needed to do as a good daughter. Rebecca’s father had few English skills, and Rebecca tried to interpret for him and for the hospital staff, although her own English skills were also limited. Rebecca’s father eventually regained consciousness and began to slowly recover; however, he continued to be confused at times and very stressed in this unfamiliar environment. He also found the hospital food impossible to eat. Rebecca began cooking food every day to take to him in hospital. She was very firm in her desire to care for him as much as possible, but she herself was quickly becoming exhausted and stressed. She was also very upset at times because she had to suspend her schooling, as she saw education in Australia as vitally important for her future. The usual tensions of adjusting to different cultural expectations and roles were brought into stark relief by the situation in which Rebecca found herself.

Rebecca received support in her carer role from a number of sources. The Karen community stepped in and offered Rebecca’s siblings a place to stay so that she could be relieved of having to care for them. Rebecca’s spiritual beliefs and her close connection with her religious community sustained her in important ways also. The torture and trauma agency counsellor/advocate met with Rebecca and her siblings to provide counselling, and also provided her with support and information about the hospital system and her father’s condition and medical procedures. At Rebecca’s request, the counsellor/advocate also attended the family meeting with the medical staff, and advocated for interpreter use with the hospital.

The counsellor/advocate continued to provide counselling support to Rebecca until she felt that her father was recovering well and such support was no longer needed. Rebecca’s father was released from hospital and began a long process of rehabilitation. While Rebecca had put her schooling on hold while he was in hospital, she was eventually able to return to school part time, an arrangement that was facilitated with the help of the counsellor/advocate. As a young refugee carer, Rebecca continues to need support so she can fulfil her role and also have some respite from it – a chance to be a young person and opportunities for socialising and play, for example. Looking to the longer term, the torture and trauma agency and Karen community members are exploring with the family the possibility of expediting an application to bring Rebecca’s grandmother to Australia.

> Fiona DeLacy

Fiona is a registered nurse and counsellor, whose background is in mental health and addiction services. She joined Companion House about 3 1/2 years ago, and has worked as a counsellor/advocate in Early Intervention (IHSS) and on a longer-term basis with adolescents.

© 2010 STARTTS  Contact: hintsforhealing@startts.org.au