Listen to thisWe must act sooner to prevent tragedies
I have followed the recent media coverage of the death of children in contact with the Ministry of Social Services in the last 20 years with feelings of frustration and hope.
Our office is notified and investigates every time a child in care or custody is critically injured or dies. We also are also notified and investigate when a child who has been receiving services from a ministry or government agency is critically injured or dies.
I'm hopeful, because the recent media coverage means many more people are aware of these children, and share my sense of sadness and frustration. I'm also hopeful as I know how many people are working together to address these issues, including government ministries, First Nations and Métis agencies, community-based organizations, and researchers at our universities.
At the same time, I am frustrated as it's clear we are reaching many children too late. By the time they come to the attention of Social Services, they are facing significant risks that are difficult to overcome.
There's a growing recognition that we need to deal with the social and economic issues that result in children coming into care. There are promising things happening across the province, such as initiatives to prevent FASD, programs to support families to stay together and address their challenges, new riskassessment tools to ensure children are safe, and research and advocacy on how to better support children and families.
It is imperative to focus much more on supporting children and families before they get to this point. We are leaving it to Social Services to try and pick up the pieces with families, instead of focusing on preventive supports and services, before families get so overwhelmed.
We also need to make sure that when families do need help, they can access high-quality services to help them address their challenges.
I know the tragic stories behind so many of these deaths. Some children died from natural causes, and some from accidents. Many of our files – almost half, in fact – tell the stories of children with medical complications.
In the majority of these cases, the government services they received meant that they were safe, and hopefully maximized the quality of their lives.
It's the rest of the files that keep me up at night – the ones where children died from abuse or neglect, or youth, desperate and hopeless, took their own lives.
All children and youth have the right to be safe and protected. It just is not acceptable for children to die from abuse, neglect or hopelessness. My office is deeply committed to being a voice for all our children and youth, so they are safe, protected, and can reach their potential.
When our office receives notices of a death or injury, we look at each situation to determine if we need to provide any advocacy services, and assess if we need to do a more in-depth investigation to figure out what went wrong.
Whether or not we conduct a full investigation, we review the information on each death or injury to see if there are any trends requiring more research or advocacy from our office.
When we see trends or identify systemic issues, we actively pursue them with the ministry or agency involved. Based on all of this work, we issue formal recommendations for changes. We engage the relevant ministries and agencies to advocate for improvements needed to services, and track recommendations to ensure they are put into practice.
We also report on any deaths and critical injuries of children and youth in our annual report, both in aggregate form, and in case studies. This ensures our work is transparent, and that we maintain the confidence of the community in our role as an independent oversight body.
I present the annual report to the Legislative Assembly every April, release it publicly, and post it on our website, www.saskadvocate.ca.
We also publish special reports periodically and my office will be releasing several such reports in the coming months. Anyone with concerns about children and youth in our province can call us anytime at 1-800-322-7221 or email us at contact@saskadvocate.ca. All contact with our office is confidential.
Bob Pringle (The Saskatchewan Advocate for Children and
Youth)
24 January 2014
http://www.leaderpost.com/life/Pringle+must+sooner+prevent+tragedies/9425134/story.html
