Ms Aoife Bair?ad:

The focus should be on the child in foster placement feeling safe again. The trauma of being separated from one's birth parent is not always understood by the Judiciary, and so children go to visits where they feel hurt and their parents feel hurt. Children in that relationship often end up refusing to go, which is not good for anybody. I would see that with the National Advocacy Service. It should not just be an advocacy service but one that addresses the issues outlined by the Senator, such as peoples' therapeutic need as a parent, not just in respect of their addiction or mental health and taking these pieces of them. They are like, "If you fix that, you will be fine." but they should say, "As a parent, this has been traumatic. As a parent, you have probably experienced trauma yourself. As a child, you have probably experienced trauma to get here." That has to be considered.

There may be cases in which children will not be able to return, but that process is still beneficial. The parents' ability to offer the child the healthiest relationship they can, will make the child's care experience better. The idea that children would have visits with their parents once a month, indefinitely, in a visitor or access centre with somebody watching them makes me so sad, because relationships should change and grow. Everyone should have that opportunity, particularly in these families where the worst thing has already happened. Having supports and therapeutic plans for families that assume this relationship will change and grow for the better, no matter what the outcome for that parent or child may be, is vital and it is such a gap in our system now.

One of the biggest predictors of people recovering from trauma is coming out of poverty. That is it. One can take every other factor into account, but the greatest predictor of them recovering from intergenerational trauma is coming out of poverty. What we are talking about at this committee is a very narrow part of what is a huge and complete system, but they are the worst parts of our society made real for children in very vulnerable families.