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System can’t deal with teens:(response to newspaper article below)
Many sent out of province for treatment, crash inquiry hears
Yes Brian Hayes - you got it right! BUT I encourage the local media to keep on digging - There's lots of dirt to go around!
See the blog we posted May 14th, 2006 Their Shipping Our Children to Utah .
So how many children over how many years have been sent out of province? How long were they gone? We know some that were gone at least 2 years. Did they all indeed come back? Should we trust what these officials tell us?
Mr Savory states that there are 2,000 children in the care of Community Services - While, for those who have been reading this site, we know there is a difference between Children's Aid/Family and Children Services and Community Services and you will soon learn Foster Care as well. So, we ask, what are the full stats for all children who have been apprehended in Nova Scotia? - (Watch this site - We will be talking stats soon enough)
Also, Mr Savory states that "in many cases the kids parents have given up on them." But we have learned from experience, that you need to listen very carefully to what these officials are saying- they are smooth.
For instance we ask, what exactly does "many" mean ? What percentage of children were taken from their parents after a struggle in court? - How many are still struggling in court? How many parents felt forced to give up their children to get the services the Children and Family Services Act 1990 states they are suppose to get in their own family setting because the system stated they could only give these services if the children were in "care" - ( finally, the public is starting to see what a sham this has been.) And how many parents signed their children over for temporary care only to find that their children were taken into permanent care.
And Linda Smith - Give your head a shake and get with the program!
Smith states “a community approach would be unsuccessful” - Well look up -way - way up . . . . . . well just four paragraphs up - “the new law emphases dealing with troubled teens in the community”
This is law Ms Smith - we suggest you get with the program and follow it!
And Mr. Savory’s excuse? “the department failed to expand its services and programs”
No, Mr. Savory, the Children and Services Act lists a number of services that should be given to children and parents to prevent these children going into care to begin with and the only 2 Advisory Committees that reviewed this act and its implementation met in 1993 and 1996 and both included in their report a letter from Justice Deborah Gass that asked the question - where are the services that the Children and Family Services Act is suppose to be based on?
And Alyson Muzzerall you bemoan that "we’re not miracle workers." - Well, let us tell you this - If the system is going to criticize the parents of these children and then rip the children away without providing healing services - YOU HAD BETTER BE MIRACLE WORKERS! - And stop shipping our children out of province!
We have also heard the inside scoop from some of the youth who have been aprehended. They inform us the the Wood Street facility in Truro is used as a threat to get them to tow the line in trivial matters or even matters concerning their basic rights. And they have already figured out how to play the game to get themselves out as soon as possible.
Lastly - Words of Wisdom about staying at home with your own family, from J, the boy featured on the CBC National presentation Finding Normal who was was in the system for 15 months in Ontario (see previous posting):
"You can learn a lot more … where people actually want to teach you and where you have friends to encourage you and stuff to play with you have a stronger urge to learn,"
System can’t deal with teens
Many sent out of province for treatment, crash inquiry hearsBy BRIAN HAYES Court Reporter
May17, 2006, Halifax Herald
Nova Scotia is sending many of its troubled teens out of province for long-term treatment for mental illness and behavioural problems.
George Savoury, senior director of family and community supports with the Community Services Department, said Tuesday there are now about 25 young people being treated in other jurisdictions, including some as far as away Utah.
Mr. Savoury told a Halifax inquiry that Nova Scotia had only one secure treatment facility — the Wood Street facility in Truro — which since opening in December 2003, has provided short-term treatment for about 160 children.
He said about 2,000 children are in the care of Community Services, and about one-third of them are in conflict with the law. About 15 per cent of that group are in foster care, and 140 of them live in residential centres.
Mr. Savoury said in many cases, the kids’ parents have given up on them.
He acknowledged the department failed to expand its programs and services with the introduction of the Youth Criminal Justice Act in April 2003. The new law emphasized dealing with troubled teens in the community rather than jailing them.
"We were not of aware of any requirement . . . to expand services in response to the act," Mr. Savoury said of the shortage of long-term treatment facilities.
He said plans are afoot to change the concept of group homes, which provide housing for kids who have no place else to stay. "Too many group homes are providing the same level of service," he said of the need of more facilities providing a higher level of care for teens who require intensive treatment.
Linda Smith, executive director of mental health, child health and addiction treatment for the Health Department, testified that in the absence of long-term facilities, "there was little likelihood of success in treating repeat offenders."
She said a community approach would be unsuccessful because some kids need to be held in custody or in a secure treatment centre.
Ms. Smith said mental health problems are more acute among homeless teens because of a host of other difficulties they face.
While the Youth Criminal Justice Act has many positive provisions, reducing the number of teens in custody means more unmanageable kids are being put out on the street, she said.
Alyson Muzzerall, senior superintendent at the Nova Scotia Youth Centre in Waterville, noted that about two months before the act took effect, her facility and a similar one in Shelburne housed 168 young offenders; 10 months later, Shelburne was closed, and the number of kids at the Waterville institution had dropped to 68.
There are 71 young people in Waterville, seven of them girls. They range in age from 12 to 18, but most are 16 or 17.
Ms. Muzzerall spoke of the many programs available at the youth facility but said, "we’re not miracle workers."
She said it took 17 years for some kids to get the way they are, and "we just have three months of programming."
The inquiry, headed by retired Nova Scotia Supreme Court justice Merlin Nunn, is looking into the events leading to the death of Teresa McEvoy of Halifax in October 2004 She was killed when her car was broadsided by a stolen vehicle driven by a teen.
( bhayes@herald.ca)
