Lived experience has been central to the Families involved in child protection during the perinatal period project, led by ACCP Deputy Director, Research, Professor Melissa O’Donnell. Funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant and a current Stan Perron Charitable Foundation grant, this project focusses on the experiences of parents who have been in contact with child protection authorities during pregnancy, or after the birth of their child, including where infants have been removed and placed in care.
In designing the project, the research team worked with Advisor Renna Gayde who has lived experience of perinatal child protection processes. Renna provided insights into the sensitivities for families and helped to shape the questions asked of project participants and the development of the co-creation process. This lived experience co-creation has assisted the team to understand how participants may view the processes in which they have been involved, and how they may directly inform what improved processes look like.
The project has also sought first-hand experiences from a range of parents including those who have been pregnant and subject to pre-birth planning requirements or delivered a baby and subject to supervision orders or have had a baby removed from their care and placed into foster or kinship care. These experiences have been captured both through one-on-one Interviews and a paper produced which outlines the experiences of families.
The voices of these parents - mostly mothers who have often experienced challenging or traumatic life journeys and are often facing adversity – have been invaluable to the project’s understanding of the challenges and gaps in the child protection and broader systems, particularly around infant removals. From these personal accounts which have highlighted the complexities of the needs of many of the families and the disempowerment they often feel when engaging with the system, the team is working to develop care pathways for families. This includes strategies to support families who often cross multiple service systems. These are being tested and refined with the lived experience participants.
Through elevating the voices of families impacted by the child protection system in the prenatal and postnatal period, the research team hopes to develop leading practice guidance and improve outcomes for families facing perinatal interventions. It is hoped that clearly articulated support pathways and increased transparency and clarity of support and care coordination for impacted families will help to meet this cohort’s complex needs. Ultimately, it is anticipated that an increased focus on early intervention and prevention will support more mothers and infants remaining together.
