Forced adoption support services scoping study Daryl Higgins, Pauline Kenny, Reem Sweid and Lucy Ockenden Report for the Department of Social Services by the Australian Institute of Family Studies February 2014

106.1General Practitioners (GPs)

A strong theme from workshops, and supported by supplementary consultation with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, is that currently, GPs are largely unaware of the history of forced adoption and its long-term effects. Lack of awareness can often lead to a dismissive or insensitive response to clients’ experiences of forced adoption. Without training and information, GPs are unlikely to be aware of the services available that may support those affected.

GPs need a well-founded knowledge on the long-term impacts of adoption that can assist in diagnosis and appropriate referral. Options identified by stakeholders relating to information and training include:

Add research on the impact of forced adoption to GP standards and training curriculum.

Facilitate access to information about forced adoption, including its history and the long-term effects it has had on people—for example, through a national website on forced adoption.

Provide an information kit for general practitioners.

Include information on forced adoption, such as health impacts, ways to identify people in need and red flags to look out for, on professional development websites—for example, websites such as the Victorian Government’s Better Health Channel or the Australian Government’s Health Direct .

Publish articles on the impact of forced adoption in professional journals and articles—for example, Australian Family Physician.

Train new GPs who are then able to facilitate discussion on forced adoption experiences with established GPs in their practice.

Provide professional development opportunities for existing GPs.

Include training courses for GPs through the continued professional development courses.

This stated lack of awareness among GPs adds to the concerns raised during the consultations regarding referrals to ATAPS services, mentioned in Chapter 6. Further investigation of the implementation of the initiative with the selected Medicare Locals was outside the scope of this study. Further, it only became apparent that these funds had been used in this manner once the Scoping Study had commenced, even though this was a decision made well in advance of the announcement of this study.

107Environmental scan

A final step in examining potential options for the delivery of services for those impacted by forced adoptions was to look at other support service systems that currently exist. Stakeholders sometimes saw parallels with service delivery in relation to:

Stolen Generations;

former state wards or care leavers (“Forgotten Australians”);

family separation;

military service and trauma; and

knowledge translation and exchange services as a means of supporting service sector development in areas such as child and family welfare, family violence, survivors of child abuse and neglect, adult sexual assault, etc.

However, there was also recognition that many of these other issues involve particular institutions, whereas forced adoption was often—though not always—a lot more personal, individual and private.

Find and Connect service: Parallels and divergence

It is not surprising that there is some discussion about the similarities between the experiences of the Forgotten Australians, Former Child Migrants, Stolen Generations and those affected by forced adoption; indeed, many who were subjected to forced adoptions are also members of these aforementioned groups.

Following the 2009 National Apology to Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants, the Australian Government invested $26.5 million over four years in a broad range of activities to support Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants. This included funding for:

support services;

advocacy groups;

a national web resource;

past non-government care providers to improve access to their records for Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants;

national history projects (an Oral History Project and travelling exhibitions, Inside: Life in Children’s Homes and Institutions and On their own: Britain’s Child Migrants); and

an evaluation.

The national network of state-based Find & Connect support services and one national provider, the Child Migrants Trust, provide a range of services to Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants, including:

access to professional and specialist trauma-informed counselling;

support to help locate and access records;

referral to mainstream services;

assistance to find and reconnect with family members where possible;

peer and social support programs; and

outreach to rural, regional and remote areas.

The Find & Connect web-based resource is for Forgotten Australians, Former Child Migrants and anyone interested in the history of child welfare in Australia. It provides history and information about Australian orphanages, children’s homes and other institutions, and also provides links to counselling/support services. In our view, there are commonalities between the issues for people affected by past-adoption practices and the following issues identified in the scoping study for the development of Find & Connect (Elliott & Smith, 2010). Section 4.2 outlined in more detail the support needs identified by people affected by forced adoption in the AIFS National Study. The issues identified in the Scoping Study for the development of Find & Connect that are similar to those affected by forced adoption include:

finding and accessing personal records;

tracing and making contact with family;

accessing support services to assist with records searching and family tracing;

historical information;

web-based single entry point for searching;

identifying and promoting good practice; and

access to specialist counselling.

Many of the psychological or emotional impacts are very similar—in terms of the separation from family of origin, perceptions of abandonment and loss, and trauma. Furthermore, findings from the literature review highlight that many of these impacts have been ongoing and have resulted in lifelong impacts for those directly involved. (See Section 4.2 for more detailed descriptions of the psychological and emotional impacts—depression, anxiety, grief and loss, attachment and identity issues, and PTSD symptoms—experienced by people affected by forced adoptions.) So it is logical to think that there is much to learn in terms of designing service models, and developing guidelines for best practice in meeting the needs of affected individuals that can be learned from institutional care leavers and the Find & Connect service.

However, some major differences between the issues faced by people affected by forced adoptions and care leavers are:

Those directly affected by past adoption practices comprise separate, distinct groups that have some issues in common, but also some separate needs and sensitivities (namely: mothers, fathers, and sons/daughters who were adopted).

Requirements regarding privacy and access to personal information are more stringent, constrained by legislation, and vary across jurisdictions (given that we are talking about two or three separate parties whose personal information is the subject).

The level of funding provided for Find & Connect was much greater ($26.5M over 4 years) to establish support services, fund advocacy groups, develop a national web resource, improve records access, national history projects and travelling exhibitions, and an evaluation compared to Forced Adoptions ($11.5M over four years) for improving access to support services, a national history project, increase capacity under ATAPS program to 30 June 2014, and develop training and guidelines for mental health professionals.

The Find & Connect website focuses on historical information; it does not contain personal information, but rather institutional information that is already in the public domain.

A number of the specific post-adoption support services (e.g., VANISH, ARC, Jigsaw, Origins) have been established by persons themselves directly affected by adoption (mothers, fathers, adopted individuals), whereas this does not appear to be the case with Forgotten Australians and the services funded through Find & Connect.

There is no service provider peak body or agreed overarching national peak or advocacy group for post-adoption services and issues, whereas the Australian Government funds three national advocacy bodies for care leavers and Former Child Migrants.

In workshops, we explored with stakeholders whether existing Find & Connect services and information (including their website) could be expanded to include forced adoption and past removal practices. Although some stakeholders recognised the significant overlap in the issues, a high level of concern was raised about diluting the specific focus on forced adoptions.

108Family Law: Professional networks and “communities of practice”

The Family Law Pathways Network is an Australian Government initiative to support those professionals who work with families affected by separation conflicts across different disciplines and systems. The aim is to share information, build collaboration and foster stronger working relationships across the family law system. The networks are based on the premise that the family law system depends on cooperation between a number of entities in order to provide a clear dispute resolution pathway for separating families.

The focus is on discrete geographic areas, such as each metropolitan city and a number of regional areas. Each Family Law Pathways Network is managed by a Steering Committee that develops an Annual Work Plan for the Network.

The Network is one of the “Professional Resources” listed on the Australian Government’s website Family Relationships Online—the web-based portal for families to access information about family relationship issues (e.g., building better relationships, through to dispute resolution), and find out about a range of services that can assist them to manage relationship issues, including agreeing on appropriate arrangements for children after parents separate. A key philosophy is that “no door is the wrong door” so that clients or potential service users can be given “seamless” access to the services and information they need (or at least improve what might otherwise be a fragmented or “siloed” experience), rather than needing to become experts themselves in understanding the complexity of the service system.

Examples of activities include:

shared (cross-sectoral) training events;

networking opportunities (running events with a speaker, and opportunities for questions, mingling and developing connections with people from other agencies, and other sectors) to promote shared resources (such as a new smartphone/tablet app. for professionals to access key information including service waiting lists, telephone numbers, email addresses, websites, etc.); and

regular newsletter or e-mail alerts about activities, resources and other matters of relevance for professionals working with families affected by family law issues.

See:

Key issues:

relies on the willingness of services to actively participate in the network and share resources, contribute to events, etc.; and

takes active coordination—for example, from the National Committee of Post-Adoption Service Providers and/or the KTE organisation operating the website.

109Veterans

Another group of clients who have experienced trauma and psychological distress are military veterans. To meet their needs, the Veterans and Veteran’s Families Counselling Service (VVCS) provides counselling and group programs to Australian veterans, peacekeepers and their families. It is a specialised, free and confidential Australia-wide service. VVCS staff are qualified psychologists or social workers with experience in working with veterans, peacekeepers and their families. They can provide a wide range of treatments and programs for war and service-related mental health conditions including PTSD.

See:

VVCS is expanding to cover related areas: border protection, peacekeepers, and providing services to children (dependents, up to age 26) whose parents are killed in military-related events, such as combat or exercises.