‘Morally, politically abominable’: WA government rejects payment for tap shock girl
By AAP
24 September 2018
The Western Australian government has rejected a proposed partial settlement for Denishar Woods, the 11-year-old girl who suffered a catastrophic brain injury after a severe electric shock at a public housing property, a support group says.
The National Indigenous Critical Response Service, which has been supporting the Perth girl’s family since the incident, says the government’s decision to reject making the $3.2 million payment is “morally and politically abominable”
“I beg the state government to review its disgraceful decision to fail to advance the family some of the inevitable compensation,” national co-ordinator Gerry Georgatos said on Monday.
“It’s no skin off their nose to do what will be lifesaving for the family.”
Mr Georgatos said the full settlement for Denishar was likely to run to between $10 and $15 million to cover the cost of her care for the rest of her life.
But he said that could take several years to finalise and the ex-gratia payment would ease some of the family’s enormous financial pressures.
Denishar’s mother, Lacey Harrison, said she was “shell-shocked” by the government’s decision which would “strand my daughter, my children, myself as a mother”.
“We should not be in this deplorable position where we’ve got to wait years for the compensation,” she said.
On Monday night a state government spokesperson told WAtoday: “The government does not believe that a lump sum payment (ex gratia) is appropriate at this time.
“The government will continue to support the family and provide act of grace payments if and when required. The money for the car is an example of this.”
Last month the government approved an act of grace payment to allow the family to buy a specially-modified vehicle.
Denishar was shocked with up to 230 volts when she touched a garden tap at a Beldon property in March.
The incident remains under investigation by the Building and Energy Division of the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.
Mr Georgatos said the department had repeatedly suggested a result was just weeks away and he could see no justifiable grounds for why it was taking so long.
AAP
Children removed from families are at highest risk to suicide
By
Gerry Georgatos
Source:
The Point
4 Oct 2016
Despite all the good work done by many in saving lives, the suicide toll for the most elevated risk groups is on the increase. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, this means the most vulnerable: individuals removed as children from their families, former inmates, the homeless and families evicted from public housing. Individuals who have been removed as children from their families endure the highest rates of high-end depression, attempted suicides and suicide.
The official suicide toll of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is over 5 per cent. Many in the field believe the real figure is around 10 per cent.
When children are removed from their families because of alleged exposure to violence, dysfunction and other perceived deviant behaviour, they are seldom provided with adequate healing, counselling to alleviate trauma or restorative therapies.
The removal of a child from his or her family is a significant psychosocial hit. It goes straight to the validity of psychosocial identity. It hurts, and for many this pain is unbearable.
In cases where there is no prospect of reunification with parents or siblings, the trauma could degenerate into a string of traumas. Familial identity is made a liability and there is a disconnection with one’s sense of worth. These issues are more acute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people exposed to racism and attitudes that diminish their historical and traditional heritage.
For many, the trauma of removal is unresolvable, unescapable and relentless. For some, this trauma is also compounded with multiple, composite traumas which may degenerate to disordered thinking and aggressive behaviour.
At present, one in nine of Western Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have been removed from their families. The situation is similar in South Australia and New South Wales. A significant proportion of these children will grow up with a sense of despair, self-loathing which may lead to aberrant behaviour, filling prisons and mental health wards.
The situation needs urgent addressing. Child Protection and Family Services should reconsider how they allocate their budgets and assist vulnerable families, instead of taking the reductionist and minimalist approach of removing children.
A great example of good practice is the ‘First Nations Homelessness Project and Advocacy Service’ in Western Australia, which has been running for two years. So far, they’ve achieved a one hundred per cent success rate in keeping together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families who were either at risk of having children removed, or of homelessness.
This game-changing project is based on a thorough, ongoing care approach, which doesn’t give up on vulnerable families.
The project coordinates psychosocial counsellors, social workers, health practitioners and mentors, providing a solutions-based approach to resolving issues for families with both the Departments of Child Protection and Housing (social housing). In doing so, they validate people.
Of course, there will always be children who need to be removed from their families for various reasons, but they should be supported uncompromisingly and without fail, so they are not completely disconnected from familial and cultural heritage.
In the last several years, I have responded to many suicide and trauma affected families. I have found that a significant proportion of child and youth who commit suicide had been removed from their biological families. A significant proportion of fathers and mothers who took their lives had also been removed from their parents.
The removal of a child from his or her family is a significant psychosocial hit. It goes straight to the validity of psychosocial identity. It hurts, and for many this pain is unbearable.
As I end this piece, I remember a father of eight children who took his life because he had not recovered from the unaddressed trauma of being removed from his parents. Those eight children will in turn carry the trauma of losing their father unless they receive appropriate therapeutical support.
There is a humanitarian crisis in this affluent nation, a catastrophic, systematic crisis. Unless we radically change policies to authentically work with families to improve their wellbeing, the number of children removed and the suicides will increase.
There is no greater legacy that any government could have than to prioritise and invest in improving, changing, and saving lives.
Gerry Georgatos, suicide prevention researcher, Institute of Social Justice and Human Rights, and a member of several national suicide prevention projects.
Where are the hundreds of services in Indigenous communities?
We often hear the claim that there are scores of services, many duplicated, in remote and regional Aboriginal communities. I beg to differ. This reinforces the myth that some communities are ‘over-funded’.
By
Gerry Georgatos
Source:
Comment
8 Dec 2016
According to Sara Hudson’s research from the Centre of Independent Studies, Roebourne in Western Australia’s Pilbara has 67 service providers with over 400 programs for less than 1,200 residents,
However, I know Roebourne inside out and I do not know where these 67 services are located. Certainly, they aren’t on Scholl Street.
Yes, there are some services that provide similar programs and this is often suggested as duplication. However, Roebourne is predominately impoverished. It lacks significant health services and quality education.
Truth be told, Roebourne and surrounding towns don’t have the same infrastructure and social assets as predominately non-Aboriginal towns.
It is wrong to describe a single staff operation as a ‘service’. It is stretching the imagination to count some casual, irregular, pro-rata ‘program’ or workshop as a fully-fledged program.
I once coordinated a project with 100 ‘programs’, but like the majority of the so-called programs were not fulltime. They were limited to prescribed numbers of participants and contingent on staffing levels.
Roebourne does not receive the funding commitments that it should be entitled to and this is why the majority of its residents remain impoverished. Yes, there is misspending and ill-directed funding and there are the soft monies too, the unjustifiable consultation and contractor hits.
Roebourne is not alone, the problem persists across the nation. Voilà! All of a sudden you understand that the $30 billion ‘Indigenous spend’, well the majority of it, does not reach the people, does not hit the ground. Yet many Australians still believe the nonsense that billions of dollars reach communities.
According to the United Nations Development Program Human Development Index, Australia ranks second in the world for public and social health, but if we disaggregate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, we would rank 132nd.
More and more Australians living in cities are proudly ticking the box stating they have Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander heritage, which subsequently skews the data. Still, despite this, 40 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are living below the poverty line. This 40 per cent was once 90 per cent of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, some five decades ago.
Now, more than 90 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicides are from within the 40 per cent living below the poverty line. Similarly, more than 90 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who are in gaol are from within the 40 per cent living below the poverty line. These statistics call for a triage based approach, with the majority of available funding targeted to and reaching that 40 per cent.
The Black revolution that is believed to comprise those living above the poverty line is mostly made up of Australians ticking the box as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, but whose families have lived mainstream, generation after generation.
Yes, there are many who have risen from abject poverty, but the majority who have always ‘lived black’, whose families were on the missions and reserves, segregated, corralled in pastoral estates, still remain living half-lives below the poverty line.
Collectivised data discriminates, and without data disaggregation, we are in danger of leaving people behind. We are making them invisible.
Gerry Georgatos is a suicide prevention researcher, prison reform advocate and Humanitarian Projects Coordinator with the Institute of Social Justice and Human Rights.
