High number of Nunavut kids in care sparks new calls for advocate
Some Nunavut politicians were shocked with recent statistics that point to a high number of children in care, with one MLA renewing his call for a children's advocate to help young Nunavummiut.
Annual reports from Norm Murray, the territory's director of child and family services, show that approximately 300 children were in foster placement in 2005-2006 and in 2006-2007. Both reports were released during the current session of Nunavut's legislative assembly.
Of the 310 children in care in 2006-2007, 180 were in the Baffin region, 79 were in the Kitikmeot region, and 51 were in the Kivalliq region.
As well, 43 children were placed outside Nunavut to address medical needs or behavioural problems. Treatment programs for behavioural problems do not exist in Nunavut, according to the reports.
"It's a lot of kids [that] for whatever reason unfortunately are not in their homes," Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo said Tuesday, noting that it's a lot of children for a territory with only 30,000 people.
"I think we should be looking at what types of things are causing this to happen, and how can we address some of those issues."
Cambridge Bay MLA Keith Peterson, who has long called for the establishment of a child-advocate position, said the number of children in foster placement clearly shows a need for someone to represent their needs.
"So if they need help, they can pick up the phone — or someone close to them could pick up the phone — and call the child advocate to intervene and get them out of a dangerous situation," Peterson said.
The reports also found that with the introduction of the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act in 2004, Nunavut has had to make "many referrals from the court to social services for child-protection investigations." However, the number of investigations was "unavailable."
As well, both reports noted workload and case-management issues, a high staff turnover and a rise in the number of agency, or temporary, social workers.
"Staff turnover has always been an issue and retention processes have been reviewed within the department and remains ongoing," stated the 2006-2007 report.
Social workers face dangers when working alone
In both reports, Murray also expressed concern about the safety and retention of social workers who operate alone in some Nunavut communities.
In those cases, staff work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even when they are ill. And if violence erupts during one of their home visits, the social worker may be in danger of being harmed.
"That is a concern for us, and I expressed that a number of times not only in the area of social work but the whole area of nursing as well," said Leona Aglukkaq, Nunavut's health and social services minister.
Aglukkaq said the government is trying to ensure social workers share office space with other government employees.
But Doug Workman, president of the Nunavut Employees Union, said social workers still put themselves at risk when they visit clients.
"There are a few situations where people are working in an office with two or three people. But when they actually go out and do home visits and such, they are for the most part working alone," Workman said.
"Yes, they have access to an RCMP officer if they need so, but oftentimes they go to people's homes by themselves."
As well, Workman said some social workers are handling probation work on top of their regular duties, although he added such a practice is slowly changing.
In some cases, Workman said, government workers have had to be moved out of a community for safety reasons.
"This essential service requires a lot more capacity [than] what they've already [been] given," he said. "A lot of our workers are working alone and working in, I would suggest, dangerous situations."