Bringing Them Home

This landing page provides information and relevant links relating to Bringing Them Home.

In this section:

Introduction

In response to the Bringing Them Home Report of the 1997 National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, the Australian Government funded a number of programs for the social and emotional well being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These programs are administered through the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health in the Department of Health and Ageing and include the Bringing Them Home, Link Up and Social and Emotional Well Being Regional Centre Programs. Over $25 million is expended on these programs per annum.

Link Up Program

The Link Up Program funds 11 Link Up Services across the country to provide support, guidance and assistance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people forcibly removed from their families and communities as a result of past governments’ laws, policies and practices, to trace, locate and reunite with their families.

List of Link Up Services

If you are interested in finding out locations of Link Up Services, please click on this link.

Bringing Them Home Counsellor Program

The Bringing Them Home Counsellor program funds over 100 counsellors nationally to provide counselling to individuals and families, and related services to communities affected by past practices around the forced removal of children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

Social and Emotional Well Being Regional Centre Program

There are 12 Social and Emotional Well Being Regional Centres across the country. The Social and Emotional Well-being Regional Centre’s have four core objectives. They are as follows:

to provide curriculum development and training for all workers involved in the area of Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing;
assess the training needs of these workers;
provide professional support to the health workforce; and
to develop cross-sector linkages.

If you would like to make contact with a SEWB Regional Centre, click on this link for a contact list.

Bringing Them Home – History

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have been forcibly removed from their families and communities since the earliest days of European occupation of Australia” (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission – The Bringing Them Home Report, 1997 p27).

In May 1995, the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families was conducted in response to efforts by key Aboriginal agencies and communities to increase public attention to this issue. The Report of the Inquiry was entitled, “Bringing Them Home – National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families”.

For further information on the history of the Bringing Them Home Report, visit the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission website.

The National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families is commonly known as the Bringing Them Home Report and was tabled in parliament on 26 May 1997.

You may also wish to obtain informationon the two peak advocate groups Stolen Generation members; the National Sorry Day Committee and the Stolen Generations Alliance.

Bringing Them Home – Evaluation

In March 2006, Urbis Keys Young, an independent social research firm, was commissioned by the Department of Health and Ageing to evaluate the Bringing Them Home (BTH) Counsellors program, the Link Up program, the Social and Emotional Well Being Regional Centres program and the Mental Health Service Delivery Projects.

The evaluation report was launched in May 2007.

The main achievements of the program were as follows:

the Link Up and BTH Programs, and Mental Health Service Delivery Projects have provided services to a large number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people nationally;
the Link Up and BTH Programs, and Mental Health Service Delivery Projects have provided services to many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are unlikely to have received services otherwise;
the programs have generally been provided in a culturally appropriate way; and
there are generally high levels of client satisfaction and positive outcomes for clients of Link Up and BTH services, and the Mental Health Service Delivery Projects.

Some of the main limitations of the programs were that:

there has not been enough focus on the first generation Stolen Generations members. Most of the clients of the Link Up and BTH services are second and later generations, and only a minority are first generation;
there are major variations in the skills and qualifications of staff of the Link Up and (particularly) the BTH Programs, and Social and Emotional Well-being Regional Centre’s need to provide greater workforce support;
there is a lack of national consistency in the way the programs are delivered; and
the programs have limited geographical coverage, and do not provide good coverage of the entire areas they are required to.

For further information on the Urbis Keys Young evaluation of the Bringing Them Home Programs, click on this link.

Consultations

Field visits were conducted to 15 locations in six states and territories by teams which included an Aboriginal and a non-Aboriginal researcher. On the visits the researchers talked to program staff, other organisations, clients and Stolen Generations members. Other sources of information used included telephone interviews, written submissions, a survey of Mental Health Service Delivery Projects, program statistics, and a literature review.

The locations visited included:

Redfern, NSW
Mt Druitt, NSW
Taree, NSW
Brisbane, QLD
Rockhampton, QLD
Perth, WA
Broome, WA
Albany, WA
Kununurra, WA
Darwin, NT
Alice Springs, NT
Katherine, NT
Adelaide, SA
Port Augusta, SA
Melbourne, VIC
Shepparton, VIC

Reference Group

The evaluation was guided by a Reference Group established to help the project. The Group’s members were mostly Aboriginal people, and included representatives of the services that deliver the programs and Stolen Generation groups, as well as experts in Aboriginal social and emotional well being and in the evaluation of programs.

Terms of Reference of Reference Group

The Reference Group’s role was to provide advice to the Department, on request, regarding:

the overall approach to, and general conduct of, the evaluation, including the appropriateness of the consultant’s consultation and data collection methods; and
draft and final project reports.

List of stakeholders on Reference Group

Members of the Reference Group comprised representatives from OATSIH, National Sorry Day Committee, SEWB Regional Centres, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service and NSW Link Up, a representative from the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, and specialists with mental health expertise.