Editorial: Children in care deserve better

The latest report from B.C.’s children’s representative is aptly titled “Trauma, Turmoil and Tragedy.” The 89 children whose lives and deaths form the basis for the report struggled in ways most of us could not imagine.And children and youth representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond found we are still not providing the support that could make a difference for these children and others like them.The report reviewed 89 cases of suicide and serious self-harm reported to the children’s ministry between 2007 and 2010. The children and youth were either in care or receiving ministry services.These cases involved children and youth with complex problems and tragic backgrounds. No system could keep them all safe, and the review found examples of good practice.But it also found alarmingly familiar failures. About two-thirds of the children were in care at the time of the serious incidents. They had been moved an average of 13 times. More than half had experienced 10 to 20 moves while in care.There are many reasons. Deeply traumatized children are challenging and about two-thirds had mental-health or intoxicant-abuse issues (mostly alcohol). Foster homes might not be able to cope; youths might need time in hospital, or simply run away.But the instability is devastating. Imagine any child, let alone one from a traumatic, difficult background, shuffled constantly from place to place with a few possessions, dealing with constantly changing rules and adult relationships, new schools, new everything.“At the very least, for most of these youth, an overwhelming burden of loss and sadness has been part of their daily lives,” Turpel-Lafond notes.We can do better. More intensive supports for overstretched caregivers and the youths can salvage placements when conflicts emerge.The report also found that in more than 30 per cent of the cases reviewed, there was no current plan of care in place for the child. That’s a basic, required document that sets out what services are needed, how the child will be helped and supported, what moves might be ahead — the kinds of things parents worry about for their children. For kids at great risk, it’s alarming those plans weren’t in place.The report also found less than half the youth were attending school regularly. That limits their futures. Perhaps as significantly, school could provide friends, contact with caring teachers and positive experiences. All those opportunities are lost.There is another aspect to the report that can’t be ignored. We’re asking the ministry to pick up the pieces after the damage is done, instead of helping troubled, poor families. Domestic violence was part of the early lives of half of these children. Three out of four were born to mothers with substance-abuse problems. More than one-quarter were the children of people who had been in the care of the ministry.And six out of 10 of the 89 children and youth were aboriginal.We can, and should, do better for the children and youth in our collective care. And, as importantly, we can and should do much more to ease the poverty and fix the broken families before things go so terribly wrong.