Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T11:02:53.922Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘There's More to be Done; “Sorry” is Just a Word’: Legacies of Out-of-Home Care in the 20th Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2017

Elizabeth Fernandez ,
Jung-Sook Lee ,
Wendy Foote ,
Hazel Blunden ,
Patricia McNamara ,
Szilvia Kovacs  and
Paul-Auguste Cornefert
Elizabeth Fernandez*
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, UNSW, G56 Morven Brown Building, UNSW Australia, High Street, Randwick, NSW, 2052, Australia
Jung-Sook Lee
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, UNSW
Wendy Foote
Affiliation:
Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Association of Children's Welfare Agencies
Hazel Blunden
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, UNSW
Patricia McNamara
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, UNSW
Szilvia Kovacs
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, UNSW
Paul-Auguste Cornefert
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, UNSW
*
address for correspondence: Professor Elizabeth Fernandez, School of Social Sciences, UNSW, G56 Morven Brown Building, UNSW Australia, High Street, Randwick, NSW 2052, Australia. E-mail: e.fernandez@unsw.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This research explored the experiences of care leavers, who lived in institutions (such as Children's Homes and orphanages) or other forms of out-of-home care between 1930 and 1989. Participants included representatives of three sub-cohorts: Forgotten Australians, members of the Stolen Generations and Child Migrants. Employing mixed methods, this research used three forms of data collection: surveys (n = 669), interviews (n = 92) and focus groups (n = 77). This research concentrated on participants’ experiences in care, leaving care, life outcomes after care (education, employment, health, wellbeing and relationships), coping strategies and resilience, current service needs and usage and participation in organisations as well as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Most participants experienced extreme neglect and abuse while in care. Leaving care, often after years of institutionalisation, was generally a frightening and demoralising process. Despite these challenges, a number of participants demonstrated remarkable resilience. For many, however, these experiences had negative consequences in adulthood including serious physical and mental health problems. This often made adult learning, paid employment and positive relationships virtually impossible. Most survivors carry high levels of trauma and complex unmet needs. Implications for policy, practice and services are drawn from key findings.

Keywords

care leaversmaltreatmentinstitutionsoutcomesForgotten AustraliansChild MigrantsStolen Generations
Type
PART B: Issue 3 papers: Articles
Information
Children Australia , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 176 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alliance for Forgotten Australians. (2016). Forgotten Australians: Supporting survivors of childhood institutional care in Australia. Retrieved from http://forgottenaustralians.org.au/assets/docs/Booklet/AFA_Booklet.pdf.Google Scholar
Andrews, G., & Slade, T. (2001). Interpreting scores on the Kessler psychological distress scale (K10). Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 25 (6), 494–497.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS]. (2007). National survey of mental health and wellbeing. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au; accessed 05 May 2011.Google Scholar
Australian Government. (2009). National framework for protecting Australia's children 2009–2020. Canberra: Department of Social Services. Retrieved from https://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/families-and-children/publications-articles/protecting-children-is-everyones-business.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW]. (2016). Child Protection Australia 2014–15. Child Welfare Series no. 63. Cat. No. SWS 57. Canberra, ACT: Author.Google Scholar
Bazeley, P. (2009). Integrating data analysis in mixed methods research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 3 (3), 203–207.Google Scholar
Bean, P., & Melville, J. (1989). Lost children of the empire. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Besser, L., Stockell, P., & Worthington, E. [Reporters]. (2016). Broken Homes. Four Corners [Television program]. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/11/14/4572365.htm.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J, Ainsworth, M., Boston, M., & Rosenbluth, D. (1956). The effects of mother-child separation: A follow-up study. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 29 (2), 11–247.Google Scholar
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2), 77–101.Google Scholar
Cameron, C., Connelly, E., & Jackson, S. (2015). Educating children and young people in care: Learning placements and caring schools. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Care Leavers Australia Network [CLAN]. (2008). A terrible way to grow up: The experiences of institutional care and its outcomes for care leavers in Australia. Bankstown, Sydney, NSW: Author.Google Scholar
Commission of Inquiry. (1999). Commission of inquiry into abuse of children in Queensland institutions report [The Forde Inquiry]. Brisbane, QLD: Author. Retrieved from http://fordefoundation.org.au/u/lib/cms/forde-inquiry-report.pdf.Google Scholar
Corby, B., Doig, A., & Robert, V. (2001). Public inquiries into residential abuse of children. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Council of Australian Governments. (2009). Protecting children is everyone's business: National Framework for protecting Australia's children 2009–2020. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Courtney, M. E., Dworsky, A., Brown, A., Cary, C., Love, K., & Vorhies, V. (2011). Midwest evaluation of the adult functioning of former foster youth: Outcomes at age 26. Chicago, IL: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Creswell, J. W., & Plano, C. V. L. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Daly, K. (2015). Redressing institutional abuse of children. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Diabetes Australia. (2015). About diabetes. Retrieved from https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/about-diabetes.Google Scholar
Dickey, B. (1987). No charity there: A short history of social welfare in Australia. Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Doyle, L., Brady, A. M., & Byrne, G. (2009). An overview of mixed methods research. Journal of Research in Nursing, 14 (2), 175–185. doi: 10.1177/1744987108093962.Google Scholar
Duncalf, Z. (2010). Listen up! Adult care leavers speak out: The views of 310 care leavers aged 17–78. Manchester, UK: Care Leavers’ Association.Google Scholar
Edwards, C., & Read, P. (1989). The lost children: Thirteen Australians taken from their Aboriginal families tell of the struggle to find their natural parents. Moorebank, NSW: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Edwards, V. J., Holden, G. W., Felitti, V. J., & Anda, R. F. (2003). Relationship between multiple forms of childhood maltreatment and adult mental health in community respondents: Results from the adverse childhood experiences study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160 (8), 1453–1460.Google Scholar
Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., . . . Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14 (4), 245–258.Google Scholar
Ferguson, H. (2007). Abused and looked after children as ‘moral dirt’: Child abuse and institutional care in historical perspective. Journal of Social Policy, 36 (1), 123–139.Google Scholar
Fernandez, E. (2008). Unravelling emotional, behavioural and educational outcomes in a longitudinal study of children in foster care. British Journal of Social Work, 38 (7), 1283–1301. doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcm028.Google Scholar
Fernandez, E. (2016). Case management in child protection: Challenges, complexities and possibilities. In Moore, E. (Ed.), Case management inclusive community practice. South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fernandez, E., & Lee, J.-S. (In press). Experiences and outcomes of adults who endured maltreatment as children in care in Australia in the twentieth century. In Rus, A. V., Parris, S. R., & Stativa, E. (Eds.), Child abuse and neglect in orphanages – history, research, and implications. New York: Springer International Publishing.Google Scholar
Fernandez, E., Lee, J.-S., Blunden, H., McNamara, P., Kovacs, S., & Cornefert, P.-A. (2016). No child should grow up like this: Identifying long term outcomes of Forgotten Australians, Child Migrants and the Stolen Generations. Kensington, NSW: University of New South Wales.Google Scholar
Find and Connect. (2016). Siblings in care. Retrieved from https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000459.Google Scholar
Frederico, M., Long, M., McNamara, P., McPherson, L., & Rose, R. (2016). Improving outcomes for children in out-of-home care: The role of therapeutic foster care. Child & Family Social Work, 22 (2), 1064–1074. doi: 10.1111/cfs.12326.Google Scholar
Fries, A., & Pollak, S. (2004). Emotion understanding in postinstitutionalized Eastern European children. Development and Psychopathology, 16 (2), 355–369.Google Scholar
Gilligan, R. (2007). Adversity, resilience and the educational progress of young people in public care. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 12 (2), 135–145. doi: 10.1080/13632750701315631.Google Scholar
Government of the Republic of Ireland. (2009). Final report of the commission to inquire into child abuse [The Ryan report]. Retrieved from http://www.childabusecommission.ie/publications/index.html.Google Scholar
Gunnar, M. R. (2001). Effects of early deprivation: Findings from orphanage reared infants and children. In Nelson, C. A. & Luciana, M. (Eds.), Handbook of developmental cognitive neuroscience (pp. 617–629). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Haebich, A. (2000). Broken circles: Fragmenting Aboriginal families 1800–2000. Perth, WA: Freemantle Arts Centre Press.Google Scholar
Harrison, E. J. (2008). Forgotten Australians: Supporting survivors of childhood institutional care in Australia. Barton, ACT: Alliance for Forgotten Australians.Google Scholar
Harvey, A., McNamara, P., & Andrewartha, L. (2016). Towards a national policy framework for care leavers in Australia higher education. In Mendes, P. & Snow, P. (Eds.), Young people transitioning from out of home care: International research policy and practice (pp. 93–114). London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hil, R., & Branigan, E. (Eds.). (2011). Surviving care: Achieving justice and healing for the Forgotten Australians. Robina, QLD: Bond University.Google Scholar
Hill, D. (2007). The forgotten children. Sydney, NSW: Random House Australia.Google Scholar
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission [HREOC]. (1997). Bringing them Home: Report of the national inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. Sydney, NSW: Author.Google Scholar
Humphreys, C., & Kertesz, M. (2012). Personal identity records to support young people in care. Adoption and Fostering, 36 (1), 27–39.Google Scholar
Humphreys, M. (1996). Empty cradles. London: Corgi.Google Scholar
IBM Corp. (2015). IBM SPSS statistics for windows (Version 23). Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.Google Scholar
Johnson, R. B., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Mixed methods research: A research paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher, 33 (7), 14–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, S. J., Pelcovitz, D., Salzinger, S., Weiner, M., Mandel, F. S., Lesser, M. L., & Labruna, V. E. (1998). Adolescent physical abuse: Risk for adolescent psychiatric disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155 (7), 954–959.Google Scholar
Kessler, R. C., Andrews, G., Colpe, L. J., Hiripi, E., Mroczek, D. K., Normand, S. L., & Zaslavsky, A. M. (2002). Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress. Psychological Medicine, 32 (6), 959–976.Google Scholar
Korff, J. (2017). Mental health and Aboriginal people. Creative Spirits. Retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/mental-health-and-aboriginal-people#axzz4m0HUAldh; accessed 07 Aug. 2017.Google Scholar
Law Commission of Canada (2000). Restoring dignity: Responding to child abuse in Canadian institutions. Ottawa: Law Commission of Canada.Google Scholar
Liddell, M. (1993). Child welfare and care in Australia: Understanding the past to influence the future. In Goddard, C. & Carew, R. (Eds.), Responding to children: Child welfare practice (pp. 28–62). Melbourne, VIC: Longman Cheshire.Google Scholar
Lindsey, D. (1994). The welfare of children. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McComsey, T. (2010). ‘In the best interests of the child’: Intergenerational legacies of past aboriginal child removal policies in Australia. In Thelen, T. & Haukanes, H. (Eds.), Parenting after the century of the children: Travelling Ideals, institutional negotiations and individual responses (pp. 123–140). Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
McDowall, J. J. (2013). Experiencing out of home care in Australia: The views of children and young people (CREATE Report Card 2013). Sydney, NSW: CREATE Foundation.Google Scholar
McDowall, J. J. (2016). Go your own way: Resource guide for young people transitioning from care in Australia. Sydney, NSW: CREATE Foundation.Google Scholar
McFarlane, K. (2008). From care to crime: Children in state care and the development of criminality. In Cunneen, C. & Salter, M. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference 19–20 June, Sydney, NSW: The Crime and Justice Research Network.Google Scholar
McKenzie, R. B. (2003). The impact of orphanages on the alumni's lives and assessments of their childhoods. Children and Youth Services Review, 25, 703–753.Google Scholar
McNamara, P. (2015). A new era in the development of therapeutic residential care in the State of Victoria. In Whittaker, J. K., del valle, J., & Holmes, L. (Eds.), Therapeutic residential care with children and youth: Identifying promising pathways to evidence-based international practice (pp. 126–139). London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Mendes, P. (2005). Remembering the Forgotten Australians: The care leavers of Australia Network and the Senate Inquiry into institutional and out-of-home care. Children Australia, 30 (1), 4–10.Google Scholar
Mendes, P., & Snow, P. (Eds). (2016). Young people transitioning from out-of-home care: International research, policy and practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Minister for Social Services & Attorney-General. (2016). Developing a national approach to redress for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. Retrieved from https://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2016/FirstQuarter/29-January-2016-Developing-a-National-Approach-to-Redress-for-Survivors-of-Institutional-Child-Sexual-Abuse.aspx.Google Scholar
Moore, S. E., Scott, J. G., Ferrari, A. J., Mills, R., Dunne, M. P., Erskine, H. E., . . . Norman, R. E. (2015). Burden attributable to child maltreatment in Australia. Child Abuse & Neglect, 48, 208–220.Google Scholar
Moore, T., McArthur, M., Roche, S., Death, J., & Tilbury, C. (2016). Safe and sound: Exploring the safety of young people in residential care. Melbourne, VIC: Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University.Google Scholar
Mullen, P., Martin, J., Anderson, J., & Romans, S. (1996). The long-term impact of the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of children: A community study. Child Abuse & Neglect, 20, 7–21.Google Scholar
Murray, A. (2008). The Forgotten Australians: Identity, records and their search for the past. The Newcritic, 8, 1–15. Retrieved from http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/newcritic/eight/?a=87519.Google Scholar
Murray, S., & Humphreys, C. (2014). ‘My life's been a total disaster but I feel privileged’: Care leavers’ access to personal records and their implications for social work practice. Child and Family Social Work, 19 (2), 215–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musgrove, N. (2013). The scars remain: A long history of Forgotten Australians and children's institutions. Australian Scholarly Publishing.Google Scholar
New South Wales Government. (2016). Their futures matter: A new approach. Reform directions from the independent review of out of home care in New South Wales. Retrieved from https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/file/0005/387293/FACS_OOHC_Review_161116.pdf.Google Scholar
Norman, R. E., Byambaa, M., De, R., Butchart, A., Scott, J., & Vos, T. (2012). The long-term health consequences of child physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS Medicine, 9 (11). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001349.Google Scholar
Ombudsman Tasmania. (2006). Review of claims of abuse from adults in state care as children: Final report – Phase 2. Hobart, TAS: Author.Google Scholar
Parry, N. (2007). ‘Such a longing’: Black and white children in New South Wales and Tasmania, 1880–1940. Sydney, NSW: The University of New South Wales.Google Scholar
Pecora, P., Kessler, R., O'Brien, K., Roller, C., Williams, J., & Hiripi, E. (2006). Educational and employment outcomes of adults formerly placed in foster care: Results from the northwest foster care alumni study. Children & Youth Services Review, 28, 1459–1481.Google Scholar
Pelton, L. H. (2015). The continuing role of material factors in child maltreatment and placement. Child Abuse & Neglect, 41, 30–39.Google Scholar
Penglase, J. (2005). Orphans of the living: Growing up in ‘care’ in twentieth-century Australia. Fremantle, WA: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.Google Scholar
Perry, C. J., Sigal, J. J., Boucher, S., & Pare, N. (2006). Seven institutionalised children and their adaptations to adulthood: The children of Dupessis. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, 69, 283–301.Google Scholar
Read, P. (1982). The stolen generations: The removal of Aboriginal children in NSW from 1883–1969. Occasional paper No. 1. NSW Ministry for Aboriginal Affairs.Google Scholar
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. (2016). Creating child safe institutions. Sydney: Author.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., Dwyer, K. M., Booth-LaForce, C., Kim, A. H., & Burgess, K. B. (2004). Attachment, friendship, and psychosocial functioning in early adolescence. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 24 (4), 326–356.Google Scholar
Rutter, M., Quinton, D., & Hill, J. (1990). Adult outcomes of institution-reared children: Males and females compared. In Robins, L. & Rutter, M. (Eds.), Straight and devious pathways from childhood to adulthood (pp. 135–157). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sandelowski, M. (2000). Combining qualitative and quantitative sampling, data collection, and analysis techniques in mixed-method studies. Research in Nursing and Health, 23 (3), 246–255. doi: 10.1002/1098-240x(200006)23:3<246::aid-nur9>3.0.co;2-h.Google Scholar
Santrock, J. W. (2010). A topical approach to lifespan development (5th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Scott, D., & Swain, S. (2002). Confronting cruelty: Historical perspectives on child protection in Australia. Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Sebba, J. C., Berridge, D., Luke, N., Fletcher, J., Bell, K., Strand, S., . . . O'Higgins, A. (2015). The educational progress of looked after children in England: Linking care and educational data. Oxford: Rees Centre & Bristol University. Retrieved from http://reescentre.education.ox.ac.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/EducationalProgressLookedAfterChildrenOverviewReport_Nov2015.pdf.Google Scholar
Sen, R., Kendrick, A., Milligan, I., & Hawthorn, M. (2008). Lessons learnt? Abuse in residential child care in Scotland. Child & Family Social Work, 13, 411–422.Google Scholar
Senate Community Affairs References Committee. (2001). Lost innocents: Righting the record. Report on child migration. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Senate Community Affairs References Committee. (2004). Forgotten Australians: A report on Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care as children. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Shaw, J., & Tanamas, S. (2012). Diabetes: The silent pandemic and its impact on Australia. Canberra, ACT: Diabetes Australia.Google Scholar
Sigal, J. J., Rossignol, M., & Perry, C. J. (1999). Some psychological and physical consequences in middle-aged adults of underfunded institutional care in childhood. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 187, 57–59.Google Scholar
Sinclair, I., Baker, C., Wilson, K., & Gibbs, I. (2005). Foster children: Where they go and how they get on. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Sköld, J. (2013). Historical abuse –A contemporary issue: Compiling inquiries into abuse and neglect of children in out-of-home care worldwide. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 14 (1), 5–23. doi: 10.1080/14043858.2013.771907 Google Scholar
Swain, S. (2007). Traces in the archives: Evidence of institutional abuse in surviving child welfare records. Children Australia, 32 (1), 24–31.Google Scholar
The University of Adelaide (2017). Australia failing on child labour commitment. News & events. The University of Adelaide. Retrieved from https://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news61881.html; accessed 07 June 2013.Google Scholar
Tierney, L. (1963). Children who need help: Child welfare policy and administration in Victoria. Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University.Google Scholar
United Nations. (1989). Convention on the rights of the child, 20 November 1989. Treaty Series, vol. 1577. Retrieved from http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b38f0.html.Google Scholar
van Krieken, R. (1991). Children and state: Social control and the formation of Australian child welfare. Sydney, NSW: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Whittaker, J. K., del valle, J., & Holmes, L. (Eds.). Therapeutic residential care with children and youth: Identifying promising pathways to evidence-based international practice. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Widom, C. (2000). Childhood victimization: Early adversity, later psychopathology. National Institute of Justice Journal. Retrieved from http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2007/10/31/106309/research-childrenwith-antisocial-personality-disorder.htm.Google Scholar
Winnicott, D. W. (1965). The maturational process and the facilitating environment. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Wooden, M. (2009). Use of the kessler psychological distress scale in the HILDA survey. HILDA Project Discussion Paper Series, No. 2/09. Melbourne, VIC: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economics and Social Research.Google Scholar
Zimet, G. D., Dahlem, N. W., Zimet, S. G., & Farley, G. K. (1988). The multidimensional scale of perceived social support. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52 (1), 30–41. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa5201_2.Google Scholar