Forgotten Australians- Online Learning and Resources

Helping Hand recognises the critical importance of understanding that every person’s life journey is unique and will impact on their needs and expectations as they age.

A group known as Forgotten Australians has been identified as having many challenges as they face the possibility of aged care. Forgotten Australians represent the 500,000 children that were placed into institutional and out-of-home care in Australia in the last century. Of this group, 7,000 were former child migrants, 50,000 were indigenous children from the Stolen Generations and over 440,000 were non-indigenous children. Many of these children experienced significant physical and emotional trauma as a result of being placed in institutional care as children and now, as an older group, are experiencing barriers to accessing aged care as a result. We respect that not everyone will identify with the terminology ‘Forgotten Australians’.

The Real Care The Second Time Around Forgotten Australians Project, funded by the Commonwealth Government, commenced in 2019. This important project has been developed with Forgotten Australians by Helping Hand, in partnership with Relationships Australia South Australia and Flinders University. The project is working towards improving the access to quality aged care services for Forgotten Australians.