• Indigenous, Standard 07/12/2017

The Bringing them Home/Link Up Counsellors data set specification (DSS) describes the counselling services funded by the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) to provide counselling to individuals, families and communities affected by past practices regarding the forced removal of children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

The aggregate level collection supports information to be collected at the counsellor and service provider organisation level.

The OATSIH Services Reporting (OSR) data set specification is used to collect service level information from primary health care, standalone substance use and Bringing Them Home and Link Up counselling service providers that received funding from OATSIH for the reference period.

Bringing Them Home and Link Up counselling services were developed in response to the Bringing them Home Report of the 1997 National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. Bringing Them Home and Link Up counsellors help individuals, families and communities affected by past practices of the forced removal of children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families to reunite with their families, culture and community, and to restore their social and emotional wellbeing. The Bringing Them Home Counsellor Program provides counselling and other related services to individuals, families and communities. The Link Up Program aims to assist clients in tracing and wherever possible reuniting with family members, their communities and culture.

Bringing them Home and Link Up counsellors do not organise reunions but may be asked to participate in reunions.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2013. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services report, 2011–12: OATSIH Services Reporting—key results. Cat. no. IHW 104. Canberra: AIHW.