Supervised parental visit program back in Sydney after 2-year hiatus

The Nova Scotia court system is bringing back the supervised parental access program in Sydney after a two-year hiatus.

Family Services of Eastern Nova Scotia used to provide a neutral person to watch over children to ensure their safety during the handoff between parents who don't get along.

After the agency ended that service, the province looked around for another provider, but couldn't find one.

The lack of local agencies willing to offer supervised parental visits is not limited to Cape Breton, said James Leiper, director of court services for the family justice unit.

So the government has turned to a community centre in Halifax's north end to run the program across the province.

"Given the difficulty in finding service providers in local areas, court services moved to a new model where Veith House has agreed to help co-ordinate the program and are hiring local people to actually supervise the parenting or exchange," said Leiper.

Veith House will be using space at Nova Scotia Community College's Marconi campus for the supervised visits and exchanges.

Leiper said he isn't sure why local agencies have stopped offering the service and isn't sure what the courts have done in the meantime with no third-party supervision available.

In some cases, judges may have ordered family members to supervise children while preventing contact between parents, he said.

Helps parent-child bond

There is no special requirement for education among supervisors, but training is offered, Leiper said.

He also couldn't provide numbers on court-ordered parenting supervision.

JoAnna LaTulippe-Rochon, executive director of the Family Place Resource Centre in Cape Breton, said the service is definitely needed.

"Life is very complicated for more of our families than perhaps we realize and so I think building and paying attention to that bond that parents want to have with their children — and children need to have with their parents — is really, really important," she said.

"Keeping parents connected to their children is just very key to child development, to adolescent development. It's an important piece and we should all be contributing what we can to it."

Family Place Resource Centre considered offering the service, LaTulippe-Rochon said, but with limited staff and resources, it would have been difficult.

Hope to expand service

However, its offices in Sydney and Inverness are already equipped with toys and are welcoming for families, she said.

Supervised parenting is now available in Sydney, Halifax, Amherst, the Annapolis Valley and Yarmouth, Leiper said, and the plan is to expand it to other communities as appropriate space is found.

"We've pivoted to this new model with Veith House and the hope is that we'll be able to offer it across Nova Scotia in the coming months and years," he said.