Province still struggles to support youth leaving system: advocate
Just nine months after aging out of the child welfare system, 18-yearold Peter was murdered.
His death, the latest explored by Alberta’s child and youth advocate Del Graff, highlights the same concern the office has had for 20 years — transition supports for kids aging out of care aren’t good enough.
There are policies in place to support youth transitioning out of the system, but Graff told the Journal he worries they’re not being applied consistently.
If they were, he said, he would expect better outcomes for children and youth.
Peter rebuffed offers to stay longer at a group home before he died, but Graff said that stemmed from the tardy development of a transition plan. It was left to Peter to ask for help, Graff said, “and it was quite late in the day when workers started to address that with him in a concrete way.”
Responding to the report in a statement, Children’s Services Minister Danielle Larivee said her ministry is developing a cultural understanding framework.
She said officials would continue to work with Graff’s office to explore how to best follow up on his recommendation, and strengthen protection and support for Alberta’s children and youth in care.
A LIFE OF LOSS AND ADDICTIONS
Peter, a pseudonym, was a young First Nations man who first became involved with child services when he was two years old.
His parents struggled with addictions and violence. Peter spent a lot of time with his grandparents, who provided a stable home when his parents couldn’t.
When Peter was six, a caseworker and police visited the family home and found the young boy and his parents intoxicated. Peter was hospitalized for three days, and talked about being abused and killing himself.
He was placed into his grandparents’ care, returning to his parents after they completed addictions treatment.
When Peter was eight, his father died, and his mom continued to struggle with addictions. He went to live with his grandparents, but they and his mom all died within the next three years.
By age 14, Peter was drinking and using drugs to cope with the sheer amount of loss he’d experienced.
At 15, he was arrested and placed into a rural group home. At 16, despite excelling in art, sports and being nominated for an academic award, he couldn’t control his anger. At 17, his brother overdosed.
By then, Peter’s cognitive function was between a Grade 3 and 5 level.
At 18, when he aged out of the system, he returned to his First Nation without a stable home. Nine months later, he was murdered.
DEALING WITH TRAUMA
Along with recommendations about supports for kids aging out of care, Graff repeated previous recommendations about the dire need to address childhood trauma and loss.
Larivee said understanding and responding to the kind of trauma Peter faced is a critical part of the ministry’s work, and it has already started implementing changes to better recognize and address the long-term impacts of grief and loss.
Graff is hopeful the province’s child intervention panel examines transitions and works to improve them.
When Peter was six, a caseworker and police visited the family home and found the young boy and his parents intoxicated.