Report calls for better trained social workers

Manitoba child and youth advocate says Indigenous teen was repeatedly let down

WINNIPEG An Indigenous teen who struggled with addiction and died in 2016 did not get the help he needed from social workers, school officials and others, Manitoba’s advocate for children and youth said last week.

The 17-year-old, who is not identified in Daphne Penrose’s 104page report, was repeatedly let down in efforts to curb his drinking and drug use, and was left in unsafe homes by social workers who should have known better, she said. “His story is not uncommon. He was a young Indigenous youth who lived in a First Nations community and the service equity wasn’t there,” said Penrose, an independent officer of the Manitoba legislature.

Her report says the teen had a happy childhood by all accounts, but started having trouble when he found out his father was not his biological parent. He started acting out at his high school and started drinking and doing drugs. The school reacted to the boy’s problems by repeatedly suspending him.

“It is important for schools to employ alternatives to school suspensions whenever possible since ... excluding youth from school can increase their risk of experiencing negative outcomes,” the report states.

The teen opened up about his addiction and suicidal thoughts to an addictions counsellor based in the school, the report adds, but his parents were never brought in and appeared to be unaware of the depths of his despair.

Manitoba’s troubled child-welfare system also let the boy down, Penrose said. Social workers failed to properly assess a home where the boy was staying as unsafe. One agency worker wrote that the boy’s dad was abusive, but there was no followup. Later, the boy stayed at a home where a woman was on probation for a firearms-related offence, but the local child and family services agency approved of the living arrangement anyway.

At 16, the boy was placed overnight in an acute mental-health facility for his suicidal thoughts. He checked out the next day and there was limited assessment of his condition, Penrose said.

Shortly before his 18th birthday, he died in a single-vehicle rollover. He had been drinking and was not wearing a seat belt.

Penrose’s call for better training of social workers echoes concerns raised at a public inquiry into the death of Phoenix Sinclair in 2005. The girl was beaten to death by her mother and mother’s boyfriend after she repeatedly fell through the cracks of the child-welfare system.

Friday’s report is a first for Penrose. Until recently, she was not allowed to publicly release her investigations into individual cases. She was also recently given expanded powers to look beyond child welfare and examine schools, the justice system and other areas.

In the coming months, Penrose hopes to complete her investigation into the case of Tina Fontaine, a 15-year-old girl whose body was pulled from the Red River in 2014. Tina had walked away from a hotel where social workers had placed her. The man charged in her death, was found not guilty.