Mystery surrounds investigations into two long-serving mental health staff on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, whose removal left some of Australia's most vulnerable children without support workers in their communities for 14 months.
A senior SA Health bureaucrat told a parliamentary committee the workers were investigated after more than a decade living and working on-country last year, but has refused to provide further details.
At the time of their removal, elders and mental health experts told the ABC they wanted staff to return to help children in need, and that a fly-in-fly-out model wouldn't work.
A telehealth service was implemented, but South Australia's Chief Psychiatrist John Brayley found that would see children "slip through the cracks" and recommended on-country staff be reinstated, or former staff involved in planning the new service.
The ABC then revealed that a draft model of care did not mention Dr Brayley's report, or detail plans for permanent staff in communities going forward.
Health Minister Chris Picton said on-country staff returned as part of a fortnightly fly-in-fly-out in September this year.
Health boss tight-lipped
Women's and Children's Hospital Network (WCHN) CEO Lindsey Gough fronted a parliamentary committee into issues at the hospital late yesterday.
The network runs the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) on the Lands.
Ms Gough said the former staff had not been reinstated or involved in the planning of the service.
"It was not possible to work with the people who were on the Lands due to investigation processes that were underway that I am not at liberty to talk about," Ms Gough said.
The ABC has contacted Ms Gough for comment about the "investigation processes".
Ms Gough told the inquiry the new model of care involved health, domestic and family violence support services and the Department for Child Protection and had been "agreed to by the community".
"The integrated model of care has been agreed to by the community, but we're just working through a few things with the minister for Aboriginal affairs (Kyam Maher) before it's formally finalised," she said.
The program is set to see workers fly-in and fly-out of two communities on a fortnightly basis from Adelaide, despite a number of elders telling the ABC this model would be a "waste of time".
She said some staff had already been recruited to the program.
"We're currently working through how we word advertisements to actually apply to live on the Lands," Ms Gough said.
"It's very difficult to recruit people to work on the Lands but we're working through a process at the moment to try and design a model where we can have more on-Lands service as much as we possibly can.
"We're offering extra payment for staff to work up there, we obviously have accommodation up there and we will talk to the relevant staff that are interested in applying for jobs to see what would make it attractive for them to work there."
In a statement, a spokesperson for SA Health said they were "unable to comment on individual employments matters."
