Children's Advocate calls on governments to address number of child deaths
- Larissa Burnouf | February 15, 2014
Saskatchewan's Children's Advocate believes it's time for both levels of government to step up when it comes to putting a stop to the growing number of children dying in the province.
Bob Pringle says his office has examined every child death in Saskatchewan dating back to 1997 and Saskatchewan is losing an average of 25 children per year. An overwhelming majority of the nearly 500 kids who have died in the last two decades were receiving services from the Ministry of Social Services or had received care and/or services within 12 months of their death. Even more startling, an overwhelming majority of those children were Aboriginal.
Pringle says the majority of Aboriginal children live in poverty and nothing is being done by government to address those issues.
"It's poverty that drives the child welfare system. It's poverty that drives the youth justice system and we should be concerned about the number of deaths, but we should be outraged that in this province 2/3 of aboriginal children live in poverty," adding that the federal government "can't continue to have responsibility for First Nations children and not step up to the plate."
He believes that poverty is a substantial human rights issue that is being swept under the rug.
"We can talk until the cows come home about the deaths going up or down but until we address those risk factors and structural disadvantages, we're not going to make an impact."
Pringle adds that the finger can't always be pointed at Social Services when something goes wrong.
"The sad reality is that 43-44% of the children that come into care are medically fragile. They're born with compromised immune systems."
He says children who die as a result of pre-existing health conditions, along with infants who pass away from unsafe sleeping conditions or who die in their sleep including causes undetermined by the coroner, make up 58% of the 500 children who have died in the last 20 years.
"Social Services does not have the capacity to provide all of the services needed to the families including the mental health services needed," said Pringle, adding that there are a number of issues that the Ministry just simply can't handle or be held responsible for including addictions, housing, legal, child care, and education and training issues.
He says the public also has a fear of the Ministry, which forces families away from receiving the help and services they need.
"There are a lot of families who don't go for support because they know that they're going to lose their children because in many ways, that's been their experience," he said. In many of his visits to communities, a growing number of elders are forced to care for their grandchildren. He says many grandparents have explained to him that they are scared to ask for help, because they don't want social workers to deem them unfit and apprehend their grandchildren.
Pringle says that some positive changes are being made within the Ministry and it's a step in the right direction, however more needs to be done.
"There are still overcrowded homes."
He says community members also need to take an active role in helping the provinces children: "The sad reality is that child protection work is perhaps the most difficult job."
He says many social workers gain experience and then leave on to other jobs, leaving the most inexperienced workers dealing with families on the front lines.
"Somehow we can ignore that the majority of Aboriginal children live in poverty. If 2/3 of non-Aboriginal children lived in poverty, we would deal with that and that in itself is tragic."
He says the entire community, along with government need to help those living in poverty.
"If we don't address the 2/3 of Aboriginal children that are poor and their families are poor, that's the pool of potential deaths in the future because their families are so disadvantaged and vulnerable. We need to just face up and deal with it."