Social worker helps high-risk Yukon teen leave the territory; mother worries she'll end up dead
Mother says her daughter, now in Alberta, suffers from addiction and is at 'very high risk' for harm
The mother of a teenage girl who is in permanent government care in Yukon says she is worried her daughter is "going to end up dead," after the girl hopped on a bus this week to Alberta.
The woman is also questioning why her daughter was helped to leave the territory.
The 18-year-old girl is in permanent custody under the Yukon's Child and Family Services Act, until she turns 19. She was living at the government-run girls' receiving home in Whitehorse until Monday evening, when a social worker drove the girl to the local bus depot, where the teen bought a ticket for Alberta.
The girl cannot be named because she is a minor, currently in care. The last time the girl was in Alberta, her mother says the girl prostituted herself to pay for her drug habits and overdosed.
Earlier on Monday, the girl contacted CBC to say that she was very unhappy at the group home, and that she was mocked and ridiculed by workers there when she asked for assistance. She also says she was threatened after she mentioned talking to CBC.
She said she met with a manager in the Family and Children's Services branch last week.
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"I was expressing my concerns and whatnot, about some of the stuff that was going on, and I had mentioned that [CBC] had called me, and [the manager's] words were, 'if you want support from us, I suggest you don't go to CBC' — very threatening kind of ... meant in a threatening way. And so I was pretty nervous about it."
The girl said she then met with the deputy minister of Health and Social Services, Stephen Samis, to complain about the manager's behaviour.
"He just brushed off my issues, like they weren't anything. I told him that story of how [the manager] threatened me and I felt nervous about it. And nothing happened, he just honestly just kind of brushed it off."
They're supposed to be helping kids that need help and they don't do it.- 18-year-old girl in Yukon government care
The girl says she is an active drug user, and spoke of several psychiatric conditions she has been diagnosed with including reactive attachment disorder, borderline personality disorder, suicide ideation and chronic depression.
"That has all come when I was in care. They didn't take care of me," she said.
"Staff lock themselves in the office and sit there — and they get paid good money. They're supposed to be helping kids that need help and they don't do it."
The teen — who has been in government care since she was two years old — says she's also gone to Yukon's child and youth advocate with her concerns "for years," but says nothing's come of that.
"They write a couple of emails, then that's the end of that."
'They just want her gone'
The girl's mother, who lives on Vancouver Island but is a member of a Yukon First Nation, says the social worker confirmed on Tuesday morning that her daughter was driven to the Whitehorse bus depot.
"She's like, 'I sat there with her — I can't force her to stay.' I'm like, 'Wow. Really?'" the mother said.
"They just want her gone because she keeps threatening to go to the media. They don't want her there."
The mother says her daughter has "a very severe addiction problem" and is at "very high risk" for harm.
"She felt like there is nobody that is going to help her. She is now probably going to be using, and I'm afraid that she's gonna end up dead."
She just has so much hurt in her... She turns to [prostitution] and drugs.- Mother of girl in care
If her daughter is harmed, she says, "it will be on the [Health and Social Services] department's hands."
"My daughter needs a lot of help. She's an intergenerational child ... It's trauma. It comes down to my family. I have it, I passed it on to my kids."
The mother says her daughter lived in Lethbridge, Alta., last year and was hospitalized after a drug overdose then. The teen had also turned to prostitution to support her addiction — something the mother fears may happen again.
"I just wanted to help her so bad," she said, sobbing. "She just has so much hurt in her, so much trauma, and that's what she turns to. She turns to [prostitution] and drugs."
"I am very, very scared. My biggest fear is that they're gonna call me and she's wound up OD'ing somewhere. It's a real possibility. My kid, the way her head space is right now, she doesn't care. She doesn't feel like anybody else cares."
The woman also worries that her daughter may wind up having to turn to her ex-partner, who she says is violent and abusive.
On Thursday, the girl contacted CBC, said she's in Edmonton and has no place to stay and no money, other than a $25 gift card for Shoppers Drug Mart, given to her by the Yukon social worker.
According to the teen, she's considered an adult in Alberta and so can't go to child protection agencies in that province.
"I'm of age here ... so kinda screwed," the girl texted to CBC.
Can't prevent her going, gov't says
The mother wants to know why a child in permanent care would be actively helped to leave the territory.
The director of Yukon's Family and Children's Services branch sent an email on Tuesday evening to the mother, saying that a social worker had "safety planned" with the girl before she left, including making sure she has minutes on her phone, a card to buy necessities, and contact numbers.
"While staff tried to encourage [her] not to go, there is little that can be done to prevent her from going, due to her age," the email says.
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"Contact has been made with Lethbridge family and child services who are familiar with [her] as they provided courtesy support and supervision when [she] was there before."
The email also says the girl intended to "stay with friends" in Lethbridge, although she didn't disclose who. The social worker is in contact with the girl via text — although the girl's mother says that's not a credible safety plan.
The mother says she believes the Yukon group home was too willing to let her daughter leave, especially when the girl had complained about a manager's behaviour.
She also said she believes the email from the director is motivated not from a real concern for her daughter's well-being, but rather because she had complained about her daughter's treatment. That complaint has prompted unwanted scrutiny, she says.
"They're not doing this for the good of my daughter; they're doing this to cover their ass because somebody's in trouble."
CBC requested an interview with the deputy minister of Health and Social Services, but a government spokesperson said in an email Thursday that the official was not available.
"There is an ongoing investigation into adherence to policies and procedures within this particular branch of government. Until such time as this investigation concludes, we will not be able to provide additional comment," the email says.
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