The name Paige was in the forefront of people’s minds for a
couple of days. For a couple of days, before
the provincial government diverted attention away from their gross neglect and
onto LNG agreements, her name blasted from our radios and televisions for no
other reason than she is dead.
Another dead Aboriginal woman.
Another dead Aboriginal woman whose life could have been
saved. The opportunities were there for
others to step in and protect her. Those
opportunities presented themselves several times through several years of her
life. Over and over government agencies
had the opportunity to step in. They did
not. They failed.
We failed.
We failed and yet another indigenous child died in care.
In last Friday’s report from the Representative for Children
and Youth (an independent body acting as an advocate for children and youth in
care in British Columbia), Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond pointed out every hole torn
in the safety net that was supposed to catch Paige and many other children like
her. In her report, Turpel-Lafond: exposed the “systemic indifference” of MCFD
social workers and other members of the child and youth services teams; casts
light into the shadow of the child and youth welfare system in this province;
calls out the blatant institutional gaps which can only be described as racist;
and exposes the complete lack of
imagination of MCFD, the Ministry of Education, specifically, and the provincial government in general, when
it comes to creating systems and practices that work to serve those who need it
the most. She exposes practices which
seem to utterly lack compassion, curiousity, and competence when to not possess
such traits costs lives.
Through her
interviews with a number of members of MCFD and different school personnel, all
along the continuum of care, we see the need for increased resources for youth
in terms of mental health and addiction supports, as well as supports for those
people living in intergenerational trauma.
We see how schools let her slip away and how medical and police
professionals had ample opportunities to support her but never did. We see how each member of the “team,” the
community let her down and, in effect, let her die.
MCFD
MCFD has been identified by Turpel-Lafond as the biggest
hole in the net. She says that specific policies
and practices, as well as a blatant failure to act in situations where Paige
needed to be protected from abuse and neglect (starting as early as when she was
five months old), resulted in Paige’s death.
Turpel-Lafond feels that there is strong legislation and policy in place
to prevent the deaths of aboriginal children (especially girls) but that “…there
is too often a distinct lack of follow-through by professionals.” (p. 8)
The Representative lists the numerous times that members of
the community (school, workers in hotels in the DTES [Downtown East Side]) made
reports to MCFD that Paige was neglected and even had markings or indicators of
abuse. In several cases social workers
did nothing. In other cases, child protection
reports were misfiled, filled out incorrectly, or not recorded at all. Time after time social workers did not follow
through on meetings with Paige, put the onus on Paige to contact them, and even
left a false paper trail stating that Paige was receiving service she was not receiving. On paper, Paige was seeing counsellors. In reality, she saw no one.
Three factors leading to Paige’s death, as identified by
Turpel-Lafond, really disturb me are:
1.
Outreach
work for youth at risk and living on the DTES has been out sourced to third
party service providers. These providers
are not bound to the provincial legislation regarding child protection as found
in the Child, Family, and Community Services
Act. These service providers work
outside of the provincial laws regarding child protection and, as such, are not
obligated to report any situations which would break child protection laws. In addition, these service providers were
also not obligated to report to MCFD in any formal reporting out.
WHAT?!!!!
MCFD contracts out to people who
are “above the law” when it comes to reporting on child protection cases. That’s right.
They are not obligated to act and they are not obligated to report. Nice use of resources.
2.
The
process of “aging out” for foster children has changed over the years but the
expectation that a young person, at the age of 19, will be stable enough to
care for themselves, and, thus be ceremoniously “booted out” of foster care is
absolutely ludicrous. Particularly if
the child in question has a history laden with trauma, as Paige did.
I have had the honour of being
asked to participate in Youth Transition Conferences with a number of youth in
my career and see the extremely valuable place these conferences play in the
lives of youth – particularly aboriginal youth.
During these conferences, the youth chooses people who have had an
important role in their lives to sit and share how they are going to continue
to support the youth into adulthood. It’s
like being invited to spend the rest of your life with this youth as a part of
it. You are, in effect, being chosen to
be a permanent member of the kid’s family…for life. This was an amazingly powerful experience for
all of us: the youth was reassured that
he was not going to be left high and dry in his life when things got bad or,
conversely that there would be people around to celebrate the good times; the adults
felt greater levels of efficacy in their work with the youth; and the whole lot
of us felt connected to a greater purpose than we had as individuals. The conference was a testament to the attachments
the young man had made in his first 19 years.
The conference assured the young man that he had people to watch out for
him and places he could go in emergency situations.
The Youth Transition conference
is great if and only if the youth has significant attachments established in
his/her life.
From my observations, it seemed
to me that Paige did not have many, if any, healthy, positive, significant
attachments to anyone in her life that would have made a “proper” Youth
Transition Conference possible. Paige
did not have the stability or connections to place or people that the young man
in my above example had. In fact, when
Paige turned 19, in the face of objections and concerns by her foster parents
at the time of her “aging out,” she was forced out of her foster
placement. Paige’s foster mother
repeatedly stated her concerns to Paige’s social worker who, by the way, had no
knowledge or understanding of Paige’s story, her history of neglect, and her
trauma. The only thing her social worker
knew was that Paige was struggling with alcohol and drug use. So, the day after Paige’s 19th
birthday, Paige’s foster parents were instructed to pack all of her belongings
into garbage bags and to deliver them to the school Paige was attending because
she was officially on her own. In fact,
after Paige found a place and moved into her new living situation, her social
worker did not check in with her to see if the placement was safe or
appropriate because “…the move happened the day after her 19th
birthday, when he was no longer responsible for her file.” (p.64)
So, check this out: Paige’s foster parents, the first people she
actually felt an attachment to according to Paige herself, begged the ministry
to let Paige stay with them so she could get the mental health and addiction
supports in place and were told that the MCFD mandate was to get Paige on her
own and stabilized. This young woman
was, for the first time in many years, in a place where she was (a) with people
she trusted a little (b) felt safe (c) open and amenable to addiction supports
and she was KICKED OUT OF HER PLACEMENT BY MCFD BECAUSE OF A MANDATE TO AGE
KIDS OUT AT 19!!!!! And, to add insult to injury, Paige's substance use escalated to crack and meth TWO months after "aging out."
3.
Institutionalized Racism as demonstrated in
the resistance of MCFD to address problems and mindsets around dealing with
indigenous youth and families.
In my life I deal with many youth
who are resistant to change and risk.
This does feel counter-intuitive when you witness the lives of risk many
youth experience. What I mean is that
many youth, particularly those who have lived in inter-generational poverty or
trauma, feel hopeless; that change is not possible and their lives are never
going to get any better. Especially
youth who have no escape from abuse, neglect, and addiction in their homes. Many youth in care have experienced
this. Many aboriginal children have
experienced this. Our mindset, or
perception about those kids, their lives, and their ancestry profoundly impact
the chances of their lives becoming any better.
How? Let me tell you: 1. current service providers come to their practice
from a disease based or pathology perspective.
You see the issues in the lives of the person and you try to remediate
or remove the issue so that the quality of the person’s life will be improved. 2. The
same service providers work from the place of pathology when working with
aboriginal youth and families. They have
the mindset that the trauma, addiction, and abuse issues are culturally
ingrained and shackle the individual to their fate: the cycle of more of the same. While this is the reality of many indigenous
people, it is not the only reality. This
variance in experience must be the place from which professionals seek to work
with all people. To practice from any
other place would be to allow stereotypes to inform your work.
While, on the surface the disease
model may seem an appropriate way in which to work with people who have complex
needs (like homelessness, mental health challenges, addictions, etc.) it is, in
fact deadly. This approach teaches
people that they are hopeless and that only outside forces will help them get
better. What is needed for people who have the above
complex needs is, in fact the opposite approach. In fact, many “best practice” recommendations
around service planning for people who have needs similar to or mirrored by
those on the DTES, is a practice grounded in the “strength based,”
client-centered model.
At the heart of
this approach to care is the idea that the person has with in them the power
and ability to make any changes they need to make their lives better and they know what they need. The job of the social worker, teacher,
counselor, would then be to play to the person’s strengths, to listen to the person's needs, and be their
biggest cheerleader when things go well, and their strongest supporter, without
judgement, when things don’t. Support
people build relationships – authentic relationships built on respect,
compassion, and honour for the other person’s story. The relationships have to be real, not
mandated. In this way, people learn that
there are trust worthy individuals in the world who actually care about them
because of who they are, not because they are a number on a file folder.
Compassion breeds hope. Hope breeds change. People ready themselves for change when they
know someone will be there to cheer them on or to lift them up.
How, exactly were service
providers supposed to get Paige to believe that people really had her best interest
at heart when the rug was continually pulled out from under her? How was Paige supposed to believe her life
had hope or purpose or meaning when she would just get her footing with people
and she was yanked away from them again and again? This was a reoccurring theme in Paige’s life
from her birth. She had no sense of permanence. No sense of place. No sense of community.
What many service providers do
not realise is that you cannot engage people in change processes if they feel
like there is no hope for change. People
have to believe that change is possible. They have to have had experiences in their
lives which demonstrate to them that they have power and control in their lives
and when they “go out on a limb” and take the risk to change something in their
lives, they need to feel that the change will actually happen. The issue for Paige, and her mother, and her
grandmother, was not that these women were actually “service-resistant” (p.62)
but that their attempts to change resulted in a lack of effect that allowed
them to feel hopeful about change. Nothing ever seemed to get better for them,
so why should they believe that things were ever going to change? Paige’s grandmother died of an overdose, her
mother died of an overdose 2 months after Paige herself died of an
overdose. If that was your reality, your
whole reality for your whole life, how much would you believe others who told
you your life could change? How hopeful
would you feel about change in your life?
Resiliency and efficacy come from loving attachments. Trauma is only healed through loving
relationships – the ability to trust that people are not going to hurt
you. You cannot process trauma if you do
not trust people. Paige had few
attachments or loving relationships.
There were opportunities for them but they were ripped away.
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS
This is my jam. This
is my area of expertise. This is where I
live: highly at risk youth.
Youth with addictions.
Youth with attendance issues.
Youth in care.
These kids are my people.
These kids are my people and I can very confidently say that
I have, really, only been able to help a handful of kids. Especially in the last few years with the
Liberal government in power. The cuts to
schools and to services for youth have crippled us.
I am unable to do my job with any confidence or effect
because services for youth are A COMPLETE FUCKING JOKE IN THIS PROVINCE.
Child and Youth Mental Health has a ONE YEAR TO 18 MONTH wait
list for kids with the most acute issues.
Even kids who are presenting with extreme psychosis are being placed on
the back burner and are left hanging because there are so few spots in youth
psychiatric wards. When it comes to mental health supports and school. I would have failed Paige, too. We have one counselor in an extremely needy
population. We would have lost her, too.
In terms of addiction supports for youth – the situation is
more dire than mental health supports.
Youth addiction treatment falls to less than a handful of service
providers. I live with this terrifying
fact on a daily basis as I try to navigate kids through their addictions – most
recently to oxys or cocaine. I watch
kids spiral further and further down the rabbit hole of substance dependency,
virtually helpless to really do anything of great import. The most severely addicted youth may be lucky
enough to attend a whole six to eight weeks of treatment with really no follow
up supports. For many kids who do not
have a family to support them, these youth, like Paige, stumble from treatment
program to treatment program with little impact on their ability to deal with
their addictions. Furthermore, anyone
who understands addictions knows that the addiction is just the symptom of a
deeper hurt or trauma and in order for those hurts to be addressed, you need to
be involved in some sort of mental health supports which are currently in
really short supply. So grows the spiral
of lack for youth who really need to experience some plenty.
So how do I keep going to work and doing what I do day in
and day out in the face of so many frustrations? I focus on the kids. I let them know, every day, that they are
loved. I let them know, every day, that I am proud of them. I let them know,
every day, that I even care enough to lovingly kick their asses from time to
time. And I have started taking a more
active role in my profession. I am mentoring
teachers and support staff to have a more flexible approach to kids and their
behaviour, to have a compassionate curioustiy about their lives, and to
understand that every kid has a story and sometimes those stories are more akin
to horror than fairy tale. I try to
share what I know about how healthy, positive attachments/relationships foster
resilience in kids and how it just takes one person to change the life of a
child. I also try to encourage changes
in mind set around how people perceive mental health, addiction, and behaviours
which appear to be counter intuitive to school successes such as school
avoidance, heightened aggression (verbal or physical), or drug/alcohol use. I try to encourage the adult to see the child
in the behaviour. I try to encourage the
youth to see the person in the teacher.
Finally, I, and my colleagues, hold together a chronically underfunded, eroding
system with tears, blood, and sheer willpower.
We love our kids. We have no
choice but to keep the system going.
There does, however, need to be some flexibility built into
the system in terms of re-integration of kids who have had long absences from
school avoidant behaviours or from transience.
We need to be more flexible around kids who come to school to hang out
with peers or adults but do not necessarily have a great track record of
attending specific classes on a regular basis.
We need to foster attachments/relationships, especially with youth who
have a history similar to Paige’s. We
need to assume ourselves into the lives of those who seem to be the most
resistant to us. The most “prickly” kid
is the kid most in need of love. Often
it is the case that the kid with the most push back has a history of rejection
and so s/he pushes first so others don’t have to. These kids need to know that we aren’t going
anywhere. They need to know we are happy
to see them – even when we are frustrated that they only come to class/school
once in a while.
That was Paige’s experience.
She attended infrequently. No one
chased her. No one made a plan to hold
onto her, even after learning that she had attended 16 schools before dropping
out in grade 10.
I know it is hard to do.
I make plans like this all of the time for kids I do not have the time
to chase. I feel tremendous guilt about
losing kids to expulsion, suspension, truancy when I knew in my heart of hearts
that I needed to fight harder and do more.
I assuage that guilt by saying to myself that I am preserving my mental
health by spending energy on the ones who show up; even when I know that the ones
who don’t show up actually need me more.
It is the continual “rock and hard place” I am trapped in: I have no time to chase the kids who need to
be chased.
And here is the truth:
if we had the bodies and my caseload was cut in half, I could chase
every kid on my caseload that needed to be chased. Not only that, I could even help the
Aboriginal Support Workers chase some of her kids, too. If we had the bodies, we could catch the kids
MCFD can’t catch. And, honestly, isn’t
that what a community is about? There
are always hands out to catch the ones who slip through in other areas. If we had the bodies, we could provide
experiences for success for kids who have known little or no success in their
lives outside of school. We could teach
kids about resiliency and build a community that will surround the most
damaged, hurting kids and love them back into wholeness.
THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
Here is another piece of truth: we live in a country and a province which
cares little, or not at all, for kids in poverty or in care. While I agree with the Representative in many
of her criticisms and recommendations, I really feel that not enough responsibility
fell upon the provincial government for their irresponsible fiscal practices
and the underfunding of social services, health services (specifically in the
areas of mental health/trauma supports and addictions), school counsellors or
other personnel who would be asked to care for children with intense needs,
like Paige. Social workers, and other
members of MCFD are being raked over the coals for gaps in service and practice
that could be remedied if their caseloads were smaller, if effective youth
services actually existed in abundance and variety, and if schools didn’t have
to give up counsellors because funding cuts at the provincial level are gutting
any programs schools had which were designed to catch, keep, and love kids like
Paige.
Where is the action on the supposed legislation put forward
to eliminate child poverty? The
Provincial Government failed in their Child Poverty Report Card in November of
2014. One in five children live in
poverty in this province (this will be the focus of my next blog post) and the
provincial government couldn’t give a shit.
They are going to hold an emergency summer session of the legislature to
pass the “agreement in principal” for an LNG plant that nobody in the area
housing it wants, but they refuse to acknowledge or address the fact that
children are living and dying in squalor in one of the richest places in the
country. Shame!
Where is the report
from the Attorney General, requested by the Representative over 18 months ago,
regarding the review of the
reasons for the lack of enforcement of CFCS Act in BC? Why have the Premier and the Minister in
charge of MCFD been silent about this noncompliance? Why have citizens of this province not called
for the Premier to bring the Attorney General into line and have the report
completed? Why has the Attorney General
remained silent to the knowledge that MCFD contracts out to outreach service
providers who are not obligated to follow the same child protection laws as
everyone else in the province?
Where are
the provincial government and municipal governments in their provision of
affordable housing in the DTES for families which are not SROs (Single Room Occupancy
– hotel) or homeless shelters? These are
known areas of drug use and sexual assault for women working in the DTES. Why has nothing been done to remediate the
housing issues for women or families living in this area? How was it ever ok that children have been
permitted to live in SROs?
FINAL THOUGHTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF MY OWN:
Reading this
report from end to end, it really feels like Paige was destined to die an
addict in the Downtown Eastside (DTES).
It really feels like this because her mother and her grandmother were
addicts, because she was aboriginal, because she was transient, because she
didn’t bother to reach out to her social worker. We just accepted her fate because this
always happens to girls like her from her background. It really feels like the whole fucking lot of
us threw our hands up in the air and walked away because the problem is so much
bigger than us. Because we have our own
kids to worry about. Because life was
shitty for us and no one gave a fuck.
Because when you make the choice to live like that, you put yourself in
situations which are unsafe and are more likely to cause you harm. Because “you can’t help people who can’t help
themselves.”
We have to
do better than this because in the words of Sarah Hunt, reporter for CBC, "...youth like Paige are paying for out inaction with their lives." (http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/paige-s-death-results-in-damning-report-but-who-will-listen-1.3078075)
The solution is
easy and all we have to do is focus on one kid.
If everyone
who reads this post or if everyone who read that report picked one kid to focus
on, one kid you know who: has had a shitty life and is struggling now, who
struggles with addiction (regardless of your biases about addiction), who has
survived trauma and needs someone to trust and love them, who has lived with
addicts, who has moved more than, say, five times in a couple of years, who
looks unclean, unkempt, undone. If
everyone picks one kid to “take under their wing” and be their angel, we would
go miles to fix this problem.
I agree 100% with Hunt, who wrote an article last week in response to the report. Hunt says the first step in any plan needs to be engaging Aboriginal youth in the discussion about how best to provide services. The best thing for us to do is to sit down, shut up, and let the kids tell us what they need and how best to serve them.
Oh, and the
Christy and her tight-fisted cronies need to focus on people not projects. She needs to fund services for children and
youth, fund schools (like get more counselors in high schools and district psychologists in elementary schools), fund programs designed to get trauma
survivors the help they need.
Putting
together a task force or a team for at risk youth on the DTES is too little too
late. Catch them before they get
there. Does that not make more sense? A DTES task force to prevent the deaths of
kids on the DTES is the equivalent of using a band-aide to stop the bleeding
after you have been decapitated…too fucking little, too fucking late.
