Fixing the mess in youth protection

Re: “Commission to probe Quebec’s youth-protection network” (Montreal Gazette, May 31)

So, Premier François Legault has appointed a nurse to clean up the mess made by former health minister Gaétan Barrette? While taking nothing whatsoever away from Régine Laurent, the article quotes her as admitting she knows little about the youth protection system.

Good on Legault for doing something, but part of the problem stems from Barrette’s having included the social-service-oriented youth centres in medically dominated administrative bodies, despite having been warned this would be problematic. Now, we have a nurse in charge of the committee aiming to fix the system! We never learn, with all due respect to Laurent. There are many youth-protection experts still working or retired. Why was one of them not chosen to guide this committee?

We need to be clear. The breakdown in the Department of Youth Protection system occurred after the implementation of Bill 10 in 2015. In my opinion, this was a causal and not correlational factor in the buildup of waiting lists and increased difficulties in hiring and retaining staff.

Yes, individuals and social institutions play an important role in preventing abuse and neglect, but the heart and soul of intervention once a child is at risk is the well-trained and supported front-line worker, guided by competent managers, supervisors and specialized lawyers, with oversight provided by a well-functioning youth court.

If we want to protect other children from the fate of that poor little girl in Granby, a number of things must be done.

Youth protection once again must be recognized as a specialization that, while working in partnership with the police, CLSCs, school boards, hospitals, etc., must be autonomous in order to effectively respond to the needs of children and families. Quebec’s at-risk children deserve no less.

Phillip Burns, social worker, Dollard-des-Ormeaux