SASKATOON -- A researcher has told a conference on aboriginal health that it's unethical for a child in foster care to be moved up to 30 times.

Caroline Tait is a medical anthropologist at the University of Saskatchewan and was speaking at the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations health conference in Saskatoon on Tuesday.

She told the audience that children experience abuse and neglect within the system because of policies that are in place.

Tait and her team of researchers have interviewed dozens of people who have been apprehended by social services and moved around.

She says their data shows that children are more likely to come in contact with an abusive foster parent when they are consistently uprooted.

Tait says the recommendations submitted to the province by the Children's Advocate Office earlier this year are nearly identical to a list of changes requested twenty years ago.