Make no mistake, there isn’t a time in this province over the last 7 years that MCFD has not struggled and failed to meet the needs of some of the most vulnerable, whether that is in the North, or in any region around BC. These cases aren’t anomalies. Read the BC Coroner's Service Statistics. Unfortunately you won't read any BCCS recommendations for MCFD in their last report, as the secrets are safe there, with a former MCFD insider well placed to keep a lid on things in BCCS. These children have LOST their lives, their families have been devastated and torn apart, because of the public policies and purposeful actions of the BC Liberal government from the time they came into office in 2001. It has been and continues to be non-stop chaos, designed and implemented by people who often have not actually worked in child protection, nor working in child welfare in BC and have even a passing familiarity of the issues and terrain. This is part of the neo-conservative ideology of the BC Liberals. This is what it has looks like:
- Funding cuts, downsizing & increase of workload for remaining workers,
- Deregulation, increase of administrative burdens and toxic work environment,
- Decentralize major tasks, oversight & accountability,
- Alternative Service Delivery (ASD) – devolve services from direct government from Community Living BC & now Aboriginal Services (April 1st 2008 all Aboriginal child protection in Vancouver is now the responsibility of Vancouver Aboriginal Child & Family Services Society).
The big problem is, organizations and people like KAP and many others have been trying to tell the government that this kind of governance ideology won’t work in child protection, THE COSTS ARE JUST TOO HIGH and the VICTIMS who really bear that cost are no longer with us because of a profound systemic failure, a self-serving and destructive force called the BC government, which is supposed to protect them. What has worked is being able to place things behind closed doors, no government responsibility, no accountability, arms length and the BC government doesn’t have to be responsible for a whole lot of children dying around the province. They’ve gotten away with this for 7 years.
Ask MCFD to release the statistics on the attrition rate of social workers. On the numbers of social workers who’ve resigned, gone on medical leaves, how about suicides of social workers? These are all closely guarded and anyone who does ask is likely put on a hit list and referred to the Minister’s office.
Or they are silenced and savaged until they shut up and leave so they can continue to live themselves. Workers are just literally being ripped apart working in this toxic and dysfunctional organization in every region in the province. Many young, new workers (majority women) are quitting in droves, completely burnt out by the time they reach their mid-20’s, after one, or two years on the job. But does the organization do anything to improve the working conditions? Absolutely not. Ask yourself, would you want to send your daughter, fresh out of university, into a home where someone is mentally ill/a drug addict/has criminal convictions/is involved in crime and discuss how they’re caring for their children, whether they should keep them? How about with no cell phone, by herself? It happens every day in this province and MCFD gets away with it.
Ask MCFD the amount of your taxpayer dollars that have gone into paying Worksafe BC fines for breaching legal duties and responsibilities for occupational safety & health (OSH)? They’ve been fined thousands of dollars. They have money for lots of executive and management retreats and lunches, failed experiments, but none for workers, or cell phones.
Right now, how many child death reviews are happening in MCFD? Do they even have the numbers? How many involve children & youth involved with CLBC? Do they have the numbers? Do the authorities know that each regional director makes the decision on whether a review even takes place, or not? And as those who’ve written reports know, those final reports are edited & re-written by MCFD personnel before they are released.
I think it is time that the United Nations became involved in the conduct of the BC government over this Ministry in its’ systemic negligence towards children in need of protection. MCFD Deputy Minister Lesley Du Toit, has been affiliated with the International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD) for a long time. How does this all connect for her? She knows Canada is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and has a strong background in child welfare. She more than anyone in BC knows the worst of what is happening, except for Marilyn Hedlund, the MCFD provincial director of Child Protection. And a note to all of you, after Ms. Hedlund’s left the leadership of the child welfare system in Saskatchewan, it required and received a huge cash infusion, which only usually happens when there are a slough of child deaths, or there are BIG lawsuits.
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Hard-hitting report on the deaths of four children in northern BC released
Vancouver/CKNW(AM980). April 16th 2008.
BC’s independent child and youth representative has released a hard-hitting report on the deaths of four children in northern BC in the past decade. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says BC’s child protection system failed the children on numerous levels. Turpel-Lafond reviewed the deaths of 3-year-old Savannah Hall, 4-year-old Amanda Simpson, 7-month-old Serena Wiebe and 14-month-old Rowen Von Neiderhausern. Three of the children were aboriginal, one was in foster care - all had some contact with the system. The report identifies key deficiencies such as failure to recognize child abuse, inadequate child protection investigations, and information sharing...it talks about ineffective training of social workers, staffing shortages, and high caseloads. Turpel-Lafond makes 11 recommendations, saying current practices have shown no improvement since these children died.
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Government failing children at risk
Lindsay Kines, Times Colonist. Published: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Excerpt:
The child welfare system failed four children who died in northern B.C. from 1999 to 2005, and the provincial government has yet to learn from its mistakes, a hard-hitting report from the independent children's watchdog says.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said her investigation of the deaths found recurring problems including sub-standard safety assessments, staff shortages and poor communication between the Ministry of Children and Family Development and other professionals.
"Most significantly, the investigation found an inability on the part of the ministry to learn from valuable lessons," she told a press conference. "Even internal ministry reviews of these deaths provided lessons that were not returned to the front-lines of the system - including not returned to this day."
Turpel-Lafond said the "standard of practice has not appreciably improved" since the time of the children's deaths.
The report examined the lives and deaths of Amanda Simpson, Savannnah Hall, Rowen Von Niederhausern and Serena Wiebe. Each child had a history of family involvement with the child welfare system.
Turpel-Lafond said the deaths occurred at time when the ministry's northern region was struggling to provide service, while trying to recruit, train and retain staff.
"At the time of each of these deaths, major policy changes were underway on top of this shifting foundation of high staff turnover, staff shortages, and resource limitations," she said.
1 comment:
"Or they are silenced and savaged until they shut up and leave so they can continue to live themselves. Workers are just literally being ripped apart working in this toxic and dysfunctional organization in every region in the province. Many young, new workers (majority women) are quitting in droves, completely burnt out by the time they reach their mid-20’s, after one, or two years on the job. But does the organization do anything to improve the working conditions? Absolutely not. Ask yourself, would you want to send your daughter, fresh out of university, into a home where someone is mentally ill/a drug addict/has criminal convictions/is involved in crime and discuss how they’re caring for their children, whether they should keep them? How about with no cell phone, by herself? It happens every day in this province and MCFD gets away with it."
If this is the case, how many of the decisions being made are sound decisions? I have run into very poor planning, my child overdosed in care on her medication, and more. I think you and I see the same thing...and what I also see is that the social workers have little skills to protect themselves entering those homes , especially if there is indeed violence and criminality, and especially if they react or triggered themselves in the home. Perhaps if they had training in violence prevention and safety, they would not "threaten and intimidate" families during investigation. I know that they are afraid, but that is "the worst" thing you can do, and it presents a very contradictory picture to a person who lives by a code of violence.
If you are coming into that home, saying to the parent "do not intimidate or threaten harm", to the child, how can a social worker say "do this or else we take your kids" on little more than a disagreement on what is best for the child, be considered anything more than the social worker ESCALATING the situation? I know many social workers have done so, and I question what kind of safety that person will have if they deal with a really, really dangerous person. The police do not do this when dealing with dangerous people. Even people on the streets will tell you that IS STUPID, but the social workers do it, and present a picture that "power is might; might is right;". So, why do what the social worker suggests? After all, the intervention strategy is to abuse power just like the abusive parent. Why change? DUH.
In places where social work intervention is done different, where persuasion and negotiation are used more than threats, I bet cooperation with interventions is higher, and kids have happier safer homes to grow up in.
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