Cochrane’s MLA is part of a comprehensive review of the province’s child protection services to help streamline a system weighed down by bureaucracy.
Banff-Cochrane NDP MLA Cameron Westhead is one of 11 all-party members who sits on the review panel. Dr. Peter Choate, Bruce MacLaurin and Dr. Patti LaBoucane-Benson, experts in the field, are also assisting in the review.
The panel is midway through the first phase, which is focused on improving the child death review process, and aims to provide a detailed report to the ministry by the end of April.
“We believe this panel has a real opportunity to improve outcomes for children and families referred to the system,” said Annemarie Tocher, resource centre co-ordinator with Cochrane Family and Community Support Services (FCSS).
Tocher said FCSS is looking forward to receiving more clarity as to how children who are not necessarily at risk of physical abuse or death, but who are affected by such factors as intergenerational trauma, domestic violence or have parents with addictions or mental health issues, can be connected with the resources they need.
Westhead hopes to achieve a more timely review process, as some case studies indicate open files of up to four years – a long time lapse for families faced with reliving their tragedies. He also hopes to cut down on the number of review processes in order to eliminate overlap and to better incorporate the First Nations experience into recommendations.
“The indigenous population is overrepresented in the child intervention system – but on the review side there isn’t an equal representation of indigenous voices,” said Westhead, a registered nurse of more than a decade.
Wildrose MLA Jason Nixon, Human Services shadow minister and representative for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, also sits on the panel. He said he is hopeful real solutions will come out of the panel, given the subject matter.
“There’s a tremendous amount of common ground,” said Nixon. “One thing everyone has in common here is that we all hope to finally get recommendations implemented through this process.”
Nixon’s chief concerns are similar to Westhead’s.
He said there is a need for a more multi-disciplinary review where the process is better streamlined, improved communication among all review boards and an established mechanism for external accountability.
According to the province, 22 children died while receiving child intervention services between April 1, 2016 and Jan. 31, 2017; of this segment, eight were “in care” (in a foster/group/adoption home), 12 were “not in care” (living at home while the family resolved issues through the ministry) and two were over the age of 18 and receiving support and financial assistance.
More than half of these children were younger than five and indigenous. One child’s death was determined “accidental,” one “medical” and three not requiring review (likely died while receiving hospital care).
Fifteen of these 22 deaths maintain a “pending” status.
Much like his NDP counterpart, Nixon said he is also concerned with the lack of indigenous voices at the table and is hopeful one of the outcomes of the process will be to include the firsthand accounts of people who have been affected by the system – rather than just social workers and legislators.
The second phase of the panel will look at the child intervention system as a whole.
