All the lost children

YOU don't see it coming. That's what they say, after the abduction, the theft, the removal, the relinquishment.

Despite everything - poverty, deprivation, violence - you don't think it's possible. They wouldn't take your child. But they did, and they do. Right up to the 1980s, it didn't require much: unemployment, the death or desertion of a husband, or no husband to begin with. Aboriginal blood, or illness, mental or physical. Hunger. Sometimes it was "the welfare" in shiny black cars. Recognising them, mothers would yell to their children: Run! It might be someone in uniform - a nurse, a nun, a police officer. Or, more insidiously, someone with the familiar face of family.
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Judge Stephen McEwen terms child service officials controls freaks

THE protection of troubled children has been hijacked by obstructive control freaks who rely on psychological advice instead of obvious solutions, a judge says.

Senior Youth Court judge Stephen McEwen has levelled scathing criticism against the Department for Education and Child Development - formerly known as Families SA.

In a transcript obtained by the Sunday Mail, he said the department was paralysed by its reliance on a team of highly paid psychologists. He said dedicated, caring social workers had been handcuffed and vulnerable children left at risk of further harm.

"If this sounds a little bit like a dummy spit, that's because it is," he said. "I'm just sick and tired of that entire department being obstructive control freaks, constantly throwing up pseudo-reasons dressed up in social work speak for refusing to just have a look at the blindingly obvious.

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Royal commission will override confidentiality agreements

The head of the royal commission into child sexual abuse has vowed to use its powers to override confidentiality agreements between victims and institutions if the information is necessary to its investigation.

The six commissioners appointed by the Federal Government to investigate allegations of systemic abuse within religious and state-run institutions have held their first face-to-face meeting in Sydney today.

Read more http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-16/royal-commission-will-override-confidentiality-agreements/4467924

'They need to make this right': Distress at broken vow over apology

Susan Treweek has had a harder life than most.  Which is why a 2010 apology made to her and other survivors who, as children, had been placed by the state of Queensland into adult mental institutions meant so much.

The apology was an acknowledgement that the 1999 Forde Inquiry into the abuse and neglect of children in state and religious institutions, and subsequent apology, did not cover all the survivors' experiences.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/they-need-to-make-this-right-distress-at-broken-vow-over-apology-20121201-2anif.html#ixzz2DwzJm2R7

Bravehearts and the National Child Protection Alliance are seeking a Royal Commission

Bravehearts and the National Child Protection Alliance are seeking a Royal Commission into the handling of child sexual abuse cases by the different systems that are responsible for the care and protection of children. In the last two weeks we learned that a South Australian Education Department administrator banned a school council from informing parents that their children had been cared for by a (now convicted) paedophile who had raped a young child. The parents were informed by letter two years later and, of course, some parents are now finding that their children were also abused. Seemingly, no counselling was offered for children, parents or staff. The issue has become political because the Premier was then Education Minister and his assistant failed to tell him that the man had been arrested. Worse, school council members were threatened that if they disclosed what had happened they could be taken to court.

This was not the first time that parents were kept in the dark. A few weeks earlier, police banned child care centre management from informing parents that another sex offender had been arrested.

Now we have senior police in Victoria and New South Wales having the courage to expose the fact that the Catholic Church not only impeded inquiries into child sex offences but competent police officers were removed from the investigations. Sadly, international research shows that abuse by clergy is even more damaging than incest because it involves God and spiritual abuse. Victims are often told that they were chosen by God to suffer the pain of abuse and, at the same time, they were made to take the blame by being required to confess the sin to the very priest who had committed it.

In addition, the Family Court continues to punish children who disclose sexual abuse by a parent or parent figure. Mothers (and occasionally fathers) have been (and are still being) accused of training the children to make these disclosures and they, not the accused, are required to undergo psychiatric assessment. The accused are given responsibility for the residence and care of the children and the protective parents may be banned from contact or ordered to have occasional supervised contact and the supervisors write reports on their parenting skills.. but no-one observes and reports on the accused person's  parenting skills when children are in their care. Furthermore after ordering children to live with the parents accused of abusing them, there is no follow-up relating to their well-being. The current Chief Justice and her predecessor confirm that the Family Court lacks the facility to investigate child sex abuse cases and state child protection services are often under the impression that they cannot intervene if a federal court order is in place or a case is in the Family Court.

The reality is that no organisation is protecting young and disabled children from sexual abuse if they lack the sophisticated communication skills needed to withstand rigorous cross examination by barristers in a criminal court.

Would readers who support a Royal Commission please email Hetty Johnson  - admin@bravehearts.org.au

Read more at:   http://www.bravehearts.org.au/

New Ambassadors will raise public awareness - Tuart Times WA

Jenny Aldrick and Ron Love recently returned
from a five day ‘Forgotten Australian Ambassador
Project’ Training Course, held at Hindmarsh in Adelaide
in October.

Jenn and Ron joined ten other ‘Forgotten
Australians’ from around the country for training in
presenting information sessions to relevant service
providers and other community sectors to raise awareness
of the issues affecting people who experienced out-of home
care during childhood.

Read more
http://www.tuartplace.org/images/documents/tuart_times_issue_3.pdf

Protection orders for children double in decade: welfare report

THE number of children on care and protection orders has doubled over the past 10 years, according to a report into health and welfare of Australian young people.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found that 28,200 children aged 0-12 were on care and protection orders in 2011, almost twice as many as in 2000.

Cases of abuse and neglect have risen from 4.8 children per 1000 in 1999-2000 to 6.9 per 1000 in 2011, representing 25,400 children aged 0-12. But they have dropped from the peak of 8.1 per 1000 in 2004-05.

There are 32,000 children in out-of-home care, a figure that has doubled since 2000.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/protection-orders-for-children-double-in-decade-welfare-report-20121030-28hpj.html#ixzz2BIw69pXU

Apology to those affected by forced adoption today

Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu in joint sitting of parliament will formally apologise on to those affected by forced adoption on Thursday 25th October from 11.30am at Parliament House - due to limited seating at Parliament guests will be very welcome at a concurrent viewing of the Apology opposite at The Windsor.

People will be able to view a live internet broadcast of the apology

at: www.parliament.vic.gov.au/video-and-audio/live-broadcasts

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-24/victorian-parliament-to-apologise-for-forced-adoptions/4331588

You are invited to attend Canberra's Reclaim The Night 2012 event, taking place on October 26 from 6:30 - 8:30pm in Garema Place. Reclaim the Night is an annual event that is held around the world and which began about 40 years ago, at the time of the "Yorkshire Ripper" murders in England, where women were told by police to stay indoors at night.  It is in its 34th year in Canberra.

Reclaim the Night has traditionally been about fighting for women's right to feel safe in public spaces, without having to live with the fear and reality of physical and sexual violence. The event provides a public platform for women - and the men who support them - to raise awareness of sexual violence and the right to feel safe in public places. 

In Australia, one in five women is likely to suffer from physical or sexual violence during their lifetime (ABS 2010). Reclaim the Night is an opportunity to make a statement against the institutional and societal values that give rise to this, to raise awareness of the issue in our own community, and to give voice to those one in five who have suffered in silence. In this year's Reclaim the Night we hope that participants will reflect on the history of Reclaim The Night, the progress made along the way, and their hopes for the future.

Reclaim the Night is the opening event of the ACT Women's Services Network's Summer of Respect campaign. The Summer of Respect runs through until International Women's day on the 8th of March.

For more information, please contact Ashley Harrison on a.harrison@wchm.org.au or 02 6290 2166 and follow us on www.facebook.com/summerofrespect

Invitation to St Vincent’s Home Reunion

Invitation to
St Vincent’s Home Reunion




Sunday 11th November 2012
10am—3pm
125 Queens Rd, Nudgee


For a small cost come and enjoy our Sausage Sizzle


Ice Creams & Drinks
Free tea & Coffee
BBQ facilities available


Enquiries to:
Mercy Family Services 07 3267 9000
Colleen 0408 704 054
Scott 0418 729 615

Thank you to all our sponsors for your kind donations.