“You would hear stories of parents coming straight from the hospital to hand over their babies.”
Sean Abbott, the outgoing chief executive of Horizons, formerly the Cope Foundation, recalls the early days of his career when parents felt forced to abandon their newborns due to the stigma around disability.
For some of these babies, who spent their whole lives being cared for by his organisation, Horizons staff were the closest thing to a family they ever experienced.
“Nobody would come to visit or be in contact. We looked after them for most of their lives,” he told the .
“Eventually somebody would find out something about the family and try to make a…