Advocates urge better sharing of information

Organizations working with vulnerable children asked for better information sharing and transparency at a review of child advocacy legislation on Tuesday.

Various service providers will often have pieces of information that, when taken as a whole, can give a picture of a child in a desperate situation, the standing committee on legislative offices heard.

“We need to protect privacy but also share information, particularly when it pertains to an at-risk child or youth. It could mean the difference between living and dying,” said Jim Gibbons of the Alberta School Boards Association.

Gibbons said that during an investigation into a child death it became clear that all the pieces of the puzzle were there, but they had never been assembled. With better information sharing, that death was avoidable, he said.

“The advocate could be the top of the pyramid to bring people together,” Gibbons said.

Alaina Thursby, a youth worker at Edmonton’s Boyle Street Community Service, told the committee it is important that children be named in reports, especially about fatalities, and in the information shared between care providers.

“Often times they are a number in a system,” said Thursby. “Naming them and making it public is really important. Often it gets swept under the rug.”

Robert Cardinal, an elder from Enoch Cree Nation, urged the committee to look at a more holistic approach to providing these services.

“What’s missing here? It’s the spiritual part,” said Cardinal.

Cardinal said he didn’t want to use the term “training,” but suggested that guidance be given to anyone dealing with indigenous children. He said he has worked with foster parents to help them connect kids with their culture and said one parent told him, “We didn’t know what we didn’t know” after working with him.

Kim Hallock, from the Red Dog Recovery Ranch, said she is happy to hear so many panellists talking about mental health and spiritually. Del Graff, the child and youth advocate, has requested that his mandate include children with mental-health issues.

Hallock said that should open to the door to spiritual wellness, which also makes families and children more open to seeking government services in the first place.

“Most of my families have no idea who you are, how to reach you, or if they should trust you. So they trust us. I’d love to see the day when they trust you,” said Hallock.

Nearly 30 panellists provided the standing committee on legislative offices with recommendations for amendments to the Child and Youth Advocate Act on Monday and Tuesday at the Federal Building in Edmonton.

The act, which was passed in late 2011, is reviewed every five years.

On Monday, there was a broad consensus that the definition of a child under the act should be anyone under 24 years old, rather than the current age of 22.