Grandparent Alienation occurs when grandparents are denied access to their grandchildren. It can vary from not being invited to a birthday party right through to no access at all. This can occur over a protracted period of time.

A comprehensive conversation about Grandparent Alienation with a panel of experts who work with families in crisis, including elder law expert at Charles Sturt University, Associate Professor Susan Field, Antonios Maglis, Community Engagement and Capacity Building Officer at PRONIA who works with older people from non-English speaking backgrounds, and Gabrielle Passlow from Relationships Australia, who specialises in conflict resolution/mediation and in family dispute resolution and community sector management.

This podcast also comes with an article by Relationships Australia QLD which you can find on the Compass website along with a curated list of Resources and Service Providers. 

More about the moderator:

Philippa McDonald is a high profile, award winning journalist and communicator who has covered Australian and international news and current affairs. Her career has been built on breaking news and analysis on the biggest stories of our time.

Philippa was part of the team who won a Walkley for the ABC’s Bushfire Coverage. She is a contributor to the book “Black Summer” and was also one of those responsible for the YouTube documentary “The Anatomy of a Mega Blaze.”.

Philippa left the ABC in October. Since then she’s been co-producing films to tackle COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Papua New Guinea, she’s been busy MCing, facilitating, hosting webinars, delivering keynotes addresses, media training and strategic communications.

More about the panellists:

Sue Field is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Charles Sturt University, a Director of the Australian Centre for Elder Law Pty Ltd and a Distinguished Fellow at the Canadian Centre for Elder Law.

Sue was until recently co-editor of the Elder Law Review, the only refereed Elder Law journal in Australia. In conjunction with Professor Carolyn Sappideen and Karen Williams Sue has co-edited a recently released text on Elder Law and is working on a co-authored text on elder law for the layperson. Sue has taught Elder Law for many years, published widely and presented at many international and national events.

Sue is currently enrolled in a PhD(i) developing an innovative model for the teaching of Elder Law. Sue also learns the cello.

Gabrielle Passlow has degrees in psychology and education, conflict resolution/mediation and post graduate qualifications in family dispute resolution and community sector management. Gabrielle has worked in mediation and family dispute resolution since 2004 and more recently as a practitioner in Elder Mediation with Relationships Australia QLD. Gabrielle is a Nationally Accredited Mediator and a Registered Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner with the Attorney Generals Department. Gabrielle was the technical writer for the research and development of nationally recognised qualifications for the Family Law workforce as part of the Attorney Generals workforce development reform in 2004 -2008. She continues to provide training, consulting, and mediation services in private practice in remote and regional Qld.

Gabrielle is passionate about the rights of older Australians and how those rights are negatively impacted by grandparent alienation as a form of elder abuse. She has an interest in grandparent’s choice of interventions in grandparent alienation matters, particularly Family Dispute Resolution in the Family Law context and Elder Mediation in a community service context.

What interventions and outcomes do grandparents seek in cases of grandparent alienation?

Antonios Maglis is a Community Engagement and Capacity Building Officer at PRONIA, who is passionate about community development and supporting healthy, connected and inclusive communities. He facilitates the access and social inclusion of older people, and people with a disability from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds into the cultural, social, recreational and civic life in a number of areas across Melbourne.

With strong experience in CALD-based community development programs, health promotion, education, training and similar related environments; Antonios helps communities plan, collaborate and connect with a variety of programs, services and supports.

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