Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

family. The healing process might take a few years, but that is by far the best way to do that(evidence 310).Submissions to the Inquiry made clear that primary ‘well-being’ services need to becontrolled and delivered by Indigenous people.If you did not have the mental health worker there who can communicate with the patient inlanguage the patient understands, you know, talk in terms of things important to the patient andthe patient knows are important to the health worker – it helps to settle things down. But if you donot have that sort of trained person present there can be disastrous consequences. It could evenlead to either unnecessary hospitalisation or in the worst case a successful suicide (Dr JaneMcKendrick, Victorian Aboriginal Mental Health Network, evidence 310).I sought counselling to try and help me overcome a lot of the feelings I carry with me from mychildhood, but it doesn’t seem to really help. The counselling I received has not been from peoplethat know much about Aboriginal culture or what we went through at the mission (quoted byALSWA submission 127 on page 200).Non-Aboriginal nurses have a lot of difficulty establishing rapport and trust with Koori mothersprecisely because it was often nurses [in Victoria] who were most likely to be associated with theremoval of Aboriginal children (Dr Ian Anderson, Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, evidence261).The most important thing is that some sort of access or system is established where there is a highdegree of trust. [It] would have to be very strongly focused around an Aboriginal communitynetwork or an Aboriginal community counselling service because there may be some veryparticular ways these issues should be addressed by Aboriginal people in which [non-Indigenousprofessionals] should at best have some sort of advisory role or assistance (Dr Nick Kowalenkoevidence 740).The 1996 Stolen Generations National Conference recommended the establishmentof ‘counselling centres, established and run and staffed by Aboriginal people [as] anessential and urgent part of the rehabilitation component of a reparation package’(submission 754 page 50). A number of Indigenous organisations similarly called forself-determining Indigenous healing centres (Broome and Derby Working Groups submission518 page 5, Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement submission 484 page 53, Karu Aboriginal andIslander Child Care Agency submission 540 page 34, Western Aboriginal Legal Service (Broken Hill)submission 775).UN Special Rapporteur van Boven recognised government support of rehabilitationfor victims of gross violations of human rights as essential to reparations. Principle 14provides that,Rehabilitation shall be provided and will include medical and psychological care as well as legaland social services.