Driving Change in Far-East Asia's Child Protection Systems - Impactful Collaborative Efforts

Dr CHEUNG is a consultant paediatrician of Hong Kong Hospital Authority. He is an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor of The University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the Director of Child Protection Simulation Training Course of the Hong Kong College of Paediatricians. Dr Cheung is the Chairperson of Against Child Abuse, an NGO specializing in child protection since 1979. He has served in the Government’s Committee on Child Abuse, Multi-disciplinary Handling Guidelines in Child Maltreatment Task Force, and Child Death Review Panel. He is a member of the Steering Committee on NGO Governance Platform Project of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. He was Convenor of the Medical Coordinators on Child Abuse of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority. Dr CHEUNG was awarded Bronze Bauhinia Star by the Government in recognition of his notable achievement in public and community services, an inspirational leader paediatrician devoted to protecting and promoting the health and welfare of children and their families.

Ayako is a general pediatrician now working in Hakodate Central General Hospital, Hakodate city, Hokkaido, Japan. She was born in Japan and spent part of her childhood in the USA and France. She completed her studies at the Medical School of Tohoku University in 1996. She has been working in the hospital together with community organizations to support children and families with vulnerability. Since 2015 with the support of her hospital staff, she prepares bimonthly seminars (Child First Hakodate) related to child abuse and neglect focusing on how the community can cooperate to cultivate positive impact on children’s lives. She has prepared her hospital to be the medical center of the area’s SART　(Sexual Assault Response Team) and helps connect children to the regional trauma therapist. She is also a central member of Hokkaido’s Child Death Review Model Project. She is a board member of JaSPCAN　(Japanese Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect) and JaMSCAN　(Japanese Medical Society on Child Abuse and Neglect), both country partners of ISPCAN. She is also the Chairperson of the International Activities Committee of JaSPCAN. Her specific interests include prevention and intervention of child abuse, connecting multiple community facilities.

Yogeswari Munisamy is a Senior Principal Social Worker of the Practice Innovation and Capability Development Unit in the Child Protective Service (CPS), Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). She is an experienced clinician in child protection in Singapore and an experienced supervisor and trainer in the areas of supervision, trauma-informed practice, working with vulnerable families, protective behaviours and care of the professional. She led clinical matters in initiatives such as Safe and Strong Families pilot which involves intensive in-home family preservation of children who were abused in their families. Yoges established the Practice, Transformation, and Innovation team in CPS with her team and shaped family and systems intervention in Strengthening Families Together Pilot which adopted a whole of government approach and enabled vulnerable families with complex needs access resources by addressing system barriers and increasing family resilience and stability. Yoges also believes strongly in evaluating and documenting practice and has contributed to several practitioner resource guides and practice research. Yoges is currently a PHD research candidate at the National University of Singapore and her research is on trauma-informed supervision and its impact on secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma and post-traumatic growth in supervisees. Yoges graduated with a master’s in social work from George Warren Brown School of Social Work in 2003. She worked in Australia’s Department for Child Protection (Perth District) in a statutory role and later therapeutic role to coach child protection workers in their work with children around critical transitions and developed a practice model for supporting children’s placement transitions. Yoges received the Outstanding Social Worker Award in 2013. Yoges continues to be a steady advocate of child welfare and provides practice leadership in Singapore.

Gracia is Senior Director, overseeing the Children in Care Group and Professional Development in Singapore Children’s Society. As a social service practitioner, she worked closely with children and young persons who had been abused and/or severely neglected in residential care since 2006, and then with multi-stressed families through its family service centre. She led service teams at community-based drop in centres in designing and implementing preventative and developmental programmes to pre-empt delinquency and strengthen developmental assets amongst at-risk children and youth groups. In 2012 and in collaboration with community partners, Gracia led cross-centre projects in outreach work with children in interim rental housing and in hosting the ASEAN Children’s Forum to advocate for and facilitate children participation in advancing UNCRC principles. In collaboration with the Ministry and community partners, she pioneered the reunification service at Children’s Society in 2017 as the Lead Social Worker, before her appointment as Clinical Service Director in 2019 for residential and reunification services in Singapore Children’s Society. She now advances the uplifting of professional practice and supervision at her agency, while overseeing its services for vulnerable children and youth.

Fran Gau currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the Child Trauma & Resilience Center at the Child Welfare League Foundation headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Launched in 2020, the Center provides trauma-informed direct services through an integrated interdisciplinary services model to children who suffered from developmental trauma, and trains social service providers, health care professionals, judicial officers, and educational staff across the country. Ms. Gau received a Master of Social Work from Michigan State University and graduated from the National Chung-Hsing University in Taiwan. Ms. Gau began her career in the United States where she served as Director of Counseling Services and Children’s Services Coordinator at the New York Asian Women’s Center (now Womankind) in New York City.