QUEBEC: Residential facility needed for kids like
Tiger, Batshaw director says
Problem is not the law - it's 'lack of
services'
The youth-protection system's mandate is to protect
young people under age 18 whose security and development are in danger -
its failure to do so is the subject of Paul Arcand's new documentary,
Les Voleurs d'enfance.
The film - including commentary by controversial
Quebec Youth Court Judge Andree Ruffo, an outspoken critic of Quebec's
youth-protection system who faces being fired from the bench after 12
reprimands in 15 years - opened as the provincial government prepared to
table a long-awaited bill overhauling the Youth Protection Act. Hearings
on Bill 125 will begin this fall.
It will emphasize mediation outside of the courts and
encourage less shunting around of children within the system. There were
nearly 30,000 cases of abuse and neglect on the books last year - the
result of 63,000 reports.
"The way youth-protection law is written, it's a
collective responsibility of all the institutions of Health and Social
Services," said Michael Godman, director of youth protection at Batshaw
Youth and Family Services.
The system depends on "signalling" of abuse to the
office of the Director of Youth Protection by a social worker, neighbour
or family member. A percentage of complaints are deemed serious enough
to be investigated. Youth protection can ask for voluntary measures or
send the case to Youth Court, the youth division of Quebec Court. The
DYP can also delegate, for instance by transferring the case to "another
group or organization like a foster family, a group home or a
rehabilitation centre."
There's little evidence, however, that reforms will
help children like Tiger, who straddle the "psycho-social network:"
Batshaw, with its foster homes and residential units, and the
"intellectually handicapped network," group homes administered by
readaptation centres like Gabrielle Major and the West Island centres.
Godman, who was part of the Quebec committee of
experts that reviewed youth-protection legislation around the world,
says the more than 56 recommendations it made will mean "extensive"
changes in the law.
"But the problem with the intellectually handicapped
is not the law, it's the lack of services and specialized services."
There's a lack of mental-health services throughout
Canada, Godman says, more so for the intellectually handicapped, and
even more so for the intellectually handicapped with behavioural or
sexual problems.
In Quebec, "to find those services is like finding a
needle in a haystack."
"One of the services one can use for sexual deviancy
is the Pinel institute, but the Pinel institute doesn't have a special
service for the intellectually handicapped. So if you're forced to mix
with those who aren't intellectually handicapped, you create another
series of problems."
What's needed is a residential facility for those
intellectually-handicapped youth who have other problems as well, Godman
says.
And while he says the current situation is tragic for
these young people, "I don't see any change on the horizon."
Donna Nebenzahl
29 October 2005
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/soundoff/story.html?id=c40512a2-76d5-4a0f-8375-32ff8aeea1d4
