VULNERABLE YOUTH
Coroner’s report raises alarm
The B.C. Coroners Service has investigated the deaths of 200 youth who died over a six-year period, just before or after aging out of the government’s foster care system into an uncertain future with little emotional or financial support.
“These young people leaving government care died at five times the rate of the general population of young people in British Columbia,” said the report, released Monday by Michael Egilson, chairman of the coroner’s child death review unit.
Not surprisingly, the document called for extending services for these vulnerable youth, who “age out” of the system at 19, and therefore lose the social workers, foster parents, monetary support and other assistance upon which they had come to rely.
The NDP government will accept all the report’s recommendations, said Children and Families Minister Katrine Conroy, who agreed a death rate of five times the average must be reversed. “It’s an awful number and we have to do more to make sure we have supports in place, and that is what the ministry is working on,” she said.
The report stopped short of suggesting child welfare should be extended beyond age 19, a measure many B.C. advocates have lobbied for, as it has been in some other provinces and several U.S. states.
Instead, the review recommended the Ministry for Children and Family Development (MCFD) loosen the rules around a restrictive post-age-19 program, called Agreements for Youth Adults (AYAs), that provides support for some up to age 26.
“Youth transitioning to adulthood need both informal and formal support, including social, emotional, financial and practical support,” said the death-review report, Review of MCFD -Involved Youth Transitioning to Independence.
“In its current state, many young people leaving care either do not qualify for or are unaware of AYA supports.”
The NDP government recently improved the AYA program, but the support is mostly available to relatively stable youth, leaving behind the most vulnerable in our society.
Right now, 19-year-olds who age out must fill out an application to receive this help, which can cover living expenses, child care, tuition fees and health care. But they are only eligible if they are completing high school, going to post-secondary school, and attending life skills or rehabilitative programs.
The report recommended that, by October 2019, AYAs should be universally available to all youth aging out of care, and that there be more flexibility with how the support is used to address each teen’s personal circumstances.
The NDP government promised Monday to work with youth and other stakeholders to figure out “how best to extend our services to meet individual need,” but provided no exact first steps.
“We have to have better services in place for young people that transition out of care,” Conroy told reporters in Victoria.
She noted, though, that the deaths in the report occurred while the former Liberal government was in power. She argued that since the NDP was elected last year, it has made some significant changes, such as expanding the post-secondary tuition waiver program, working more collaboratively with Indigenous communities, improving transition-to-adulthood planning, and providing more services to address drug overdoses.
This review was sparked by some high-profile, tragic deaths in B.C., including Paige Gauchier, 19, who overdosed in a Downtown Eastside social housing building in 2013, months after leaving her life of turmoil in care; Alex Gervais who jumped out the window of an Abbotsford hotel, where he had been placed against ministry rules, just months before his 19th birthday in 2015; and Santanna Scott-Huntinghawk, 19, who overdosed in 2016 while living in a tent in Surrey.
This review, which looked at deaths between 2011 and 2016 of 200 youth aged 17-25 with links to the foster system, found:
A lack of documented transition planning to live independently;
A disproportionate number of Indigenous youth died;
High rates of suicide and drug overdose deaths;
High rates of health and mental health issues;
Very low graduation and poor employment rates;
A high risk of homelessness; Much shuffling between foster homes and other support services, leaving a lack of continuity in their lives.
Each year in B.C., roughly 780 youth age out of care in B.C.
Although some youth leaving care are resilient and successful, they often face more challenges than their peers from traditional homes, such as not having a family network, limited financial help, poor life skills, and psychological scars linked to childhood trauma.