Children and Youth Bernard Richard shares ongoing concerns with some child welfare residential resources

Children and Youth Bernard Richard shares ongoing concerns with some child welfare residential resources
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B.C. Representative for Children and Youth Bernard Richard released a statement about his "grave concerns" regarding the operations of some residential agencies contracted by the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Photo courtesy CBC.

B.C. Representative for Children and Youth Bernard Richard released a statement about his “grave concerns” regarding the operations of some residential agencies contracted by the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Photo courtesy CBC.

The advocate for B.C.’s children and youth says he has “grave concerns” regarding the operation of agencies hired by the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD).

In a public statement, Representative for Children and Youth (RCY) Bernard Richard said he was “shocked” to find issues regarding caregivers at another Lower Mainland residential agency that resulted in the closure of the facility.

Richard said 18 children and youth had to be relocated when one of those in care disclosed that a staff member had gang affiliations and took youth on drug drops, smoked marijuana with the youth and offered cocaine.

An investigation found 10 of 33 staff and care providers had completed criminal record checks and other security-screening criteria.

Richard says although the ministry created a centralized screening hub to review the background and qualification of residential agency staff, he recently found out nearly half of B.C.’s 96 residential agencies have screened employees through the hub.

Unsuitable and unqualified staff were among concerns raised by RCY in its 2017 report “Broken Promises, Alex’s Story”, which detailed the 2015 suicide death of a youth that was in provincial care.

Friends and family were upset with the circumstances surrounding Alex Gervais’ death, saying the 18-year-old was left alone for three months at an Abbotsford hotel before taking his own life.

The report said unqualified staff did little in the way of supervision or support for Alex, who along with 32 other children and youth were moved to the hotel when a residential agency was shut down due to problems that included the inadequate screening of staff.

The same issue came up at a Lower Mainland facility in 2016, where 20 children in care were moved after allegations of inappropriate care was provided.

An investigation found poor qualifications and lack of completed background checks of staff.

Richard says since the release of Alex’s Story, “MCFD has still not reviewed the backgrounds and qualifications of all staff who are currently providing care to children and youth in contracted residential agencies in B.C.”

He calls it “clearly unacceptable” that children and youth in the facilities continue to be “exposed to risk”.

Other issues raised by Richard regarding agency operations include a lack of evidence-based therapeutic approaches, inappropriate matching of the needs of the children and youth with the capacity of caregivers, issues of poor matching of youth living in the same placement and undue reliance on police intervention for behaviour management and crisis response.

Richard says closing the facilities means children and youth have to go through the process of moving to another agency and trying to form new relationships with providers and residents while changing schools and other services.

“The ministry has known about these issues for some time, has been presented with options to improve the system and yet continues to place the most vulnerable children in care in harm’s way,” Richard said in the statement.

Minister Katrine Conroy said in a statement that the representative’s letter rightly outlined a number of flaws in the system.

Effective immediately, no new contracted residential agencies will be opened without the approval of a senior ministry official, she said, and the ministry will review the circumstances of the more than 800 children and youth currently placed in contracted homes.

As part of the review, the ministry will develop a new approval process for placing any child or youth in a contracted group home, she said.

“This is a problem the previous government grappled with, and it’s one that I, as minister, have been concerned with and will not allow to continue,” she said. “Previously, change was aimed at simply improving the status quo. What we need to do is completely overhaul that system.”

Richard questioned why the ministry hadn’t addressed the problems with contracted group homes sooner and whether he could trust the government to follow through. He offered to work with the ministry a year and a half ago on this issue and it refused, he said.

“We’ll see. We’ll monitor what they actually do. I’d rather measure them on outcomes than on promises,” he said.

“I’ve learned too many times the promises only go so far.”

With files from Laura Kane, The Canadian Press

 

Andy NealAndy Neal

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