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In 1989 the Association for the Support of Psychiatric Services (ASPS) was established in Warrnambool after a public meeting identified the need for a service to support individuals with a mental illness and their carers. This need was also identified in a study of carers funded by the National Mental Health Funding Scheme and carried out by Lowndes and Harrison in 1993. The report also overwhelmingly identified a desperate need for a specific service to provide support for carers.

I am a part Aboriginal woman, who was adopted out at birth. I was adopted by a white Australian family and came to live in New Zealand at the age of 6 months. I grew up not knowing about my natural Mother and Father. The only information my adoptive parents had about my birth, was the surname of my birth Mother.

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In November 2007, Australia elected a new federal government. With the new government came new policies aimed at improving Aboriginal’s and Torres Strait Islander’s social and economic situation. In the new government’s National Platform and Constitution[1], the Australian Labor Party stated that it:

1. The adequacy and effectiveness of the policies, agreements, laws, rules and practices governing children in immigration detention or child asylum seekers and refugees residing in the community after a period of detention

1. The provisions made by Australia to implement its international human rights obligations regarding child asylum seekers, including unaccompanied minors.

I looked up and saw a long line of men, women and children waiting to have their blood taken. I was standing beside a small table in a RAAF tent with a co-worker. It was 40 degrees Celsius in the Kimberly November humidity. Both ends of our tent were open in a vain attempt to get a breeze through as we worked side by side with flies buzzing around our faces and hands and sweat running down our bodies. This was my first impression of a detention centre.

In my previous two Native Title Reports, I have strongly argued the need to reform the native title system. Stakeholders from all sectors engaged in the native title system have also stressed the need for the Government to take significant steps to ensure that the system meets the original objectives set out in the preamble to the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (Native Title Act).

The literature review pulls together some of the main concepts and findings about Indigenous young people with cognitive disabilities and/ or mental health issues from involvement with the juvenile justice system. However, we are also interested in finding out what is actually happening on the ground for these young people.