Childhood trauma experts critical of mother and baby home redress scheme

Children's minister Roderic O’Gorman announcing the details of the mother and baby institutions payment scheme last week. Picture: Maxwells

The mother and baby home redress scheme does not take the latest research on childhood trauma into account, experts claim.

It comes as Opposition parties are calling on the Government to include all survivors of mother and baby homes in the recently announced redress scheme.

A Sinn Féin motion, which has received the backing of the Social Democrats, Labour, and a number of Independents, calls on children's minister Roderic O'Gorman to urgently review issues that survivors have identified within the scheme, such as time-based criteria, the exclusion of children who were boarded out, access to the enhanced medical card, and the failure to include some institutions.

Meanwhile, a group of more than 30 clinicians working in the area of childhood trauma have written an open letter to Mr O'Gorman, calling on him to reframe the scheme.

The experts have hit out at the fact that, in setting a six-month threshold, the scheme does not take recent developments on trauma into account.

"In reading the details of the scheme, what strikes us is the lack of integration of the latest research regarding childhood trauma and brain development, which in turn lead to erroneous conclusions and pathways for those with lived experiences of mother and baby homes," the letter states.

It also states that the issue is "complex", but that childhood trauma, which includes separation from primary caregiver and exposure to multiple caregivers in an institutional setting, has "the greatest impact" early in childhood due to the rapid development of the brain during this time.

"We are so fortunate to know so much about this area now thanks to recent developments in neuroscience and attachment, and indeed to have clinicians in Ireland who are informed by these principles," the clinicians have written. "However, some information is not entirely new.

“For instance, we know that early separation from a caregiver is intrinsically stressful and has a long-lasting impact throughout the lifespan. 

"Thus, to state that young children, who might have been in mother and baby homes for a period of two to three months early in life, were less impacted by those who spent longer, is simply not scientifically correct.

"Indeed, the opposite is true. The earlier the impact of trauma, the more long-lasting the effects."

The Sinn Féin motion, which will be debated in the Dáil today, also calls on the Government to immediately seek recourse from religious orders and pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the redress scheme.

Sinn Fein spokesperson on children Kathleen Funchion. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Sinn Féin's spokesperson on children, Kathleen Funchion, said the current scheme, which only allows children born in mother and baby homes to apply for the scheme if they spent at least six months in an institution, as an "insult" to survivors.

"At the moment, 41% of those who were either sent to institutions or who were born into institutions have been excluded from the scheme, which is not a good starting point for any scheme," she said.

"A scheme that starts by excluding nearly half the people is going to be so flawed that it will never be accepted. It's a further insult, really."

She added that changes must also be made to the criteria for awarding enhanced medical cards under the scheme.

"At the moment you have to have the 34,000 people that will get some level of redress," said Ms Funchion. "Only 19,000 of them are eligible for the enhanced medical card, which is absolutely ridiculous."