More mental health support needed to prevent deaths of young people: Manitoba children's advocate

Manitoba's advocate for children and youth says more supports are needed for children with mental health issues, after her annual report found suicide was the cause of death in many cases reviewed by her office. 

According to the report released Wednesday, there were 199 deaths of children and young people 21 and under reported to children's advocate Daphne Penrose in 2018-19. Seventy of those were reviewed by her office — the same number as last year.

The children's advocate is notified of all deaths of all young people in Manitoba, but only reviews the deaths of children who had some contact with child and family services agencies in the past.

Of those 70 deaths, 15 involved children who were in the care of child and family services at the time of their death.

When looking at all of the 70 cases reviewed by the advocate, suicide was the third most common cause of death. The leading cause of death was "undetermined" (25 deaths), according to the report, while about a third (22) were from natural causes.

But when looking specifically at the 15 cases where the children were wards of child and family services, suicide was the leading cause of death. Five of the 15 deaths of kids in CFS care — or one third — involved a child who took their own life, according to the report. 

Of all the 199 child deaths reported to the advocate, most were from natural causes. Ten per cent were from suicide. 

In the cases she reviewed, Penrose said she found that children struggling with mental health issues are having a very difficult time accessing the services the need to help them. That was both because there aren't enough resources available, or the social services meant to help them were too difficult to navigate, she said. 

"What ends up happening is they end their life through suicide because they are not receiving the mental health and wellness support that they need," she said.

With respect to CFS, Penrose said she found cases where planning and health assessments for children were incomplete or not done at all. 

Calls for help 

The advocate's office also received over 3,000 requests for advocacy, the report says, from parents and/or their children asking for help navigating social services or government systems.

Ninety-six per cent of those people had an open file with CFS. 

In many of those cases, Penrose said her office found children and youth who were struggling with addiction and/or mental health issues and weren't able to access the services they needed. 

"It's important that we continue to push forward as responsibly and as quickly as we can, to make sure that kids can access those services so that they can get the help they need when they need it," she said. 

Under new legislation passed last year, Penrose should be able to review deaths of children who came into contact with social services besides CFS — such as education, health and justice — and to publicly release the findings of her office's investigations.

But the legislation hasn't come into full effect yet, limiting her role to just children involved with CFS.

If you're experiencing suicidal thoughts or having a mental health crisis, there is help out there. Contact the Manitoba Suicide Prevention and Support Line toll-free at 1-877-435-7170 (1-877-HELP170) or the Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868. You can also text CONNECT to 686868 and get immediate support from a crisis responder through the Crisis Text Line, powered by Kids Help Phone.