18:59 Children “may not be safe” in Ontario’s child welfare system Children “may not be safe” in Ontario’s child welfare system
A joint investigation by Global News and APTN has found disturbing conditions in Ontario group homes, a network of private, non-profit facilities designed to protect some of the province’s most vulnerable children.
The investigation found that there is a significantly high number of injured, extensive use of physical restraints and missing children among private service providers.
Former residents and child welfare experts paint a striking picture of a system that lacks skilled and neglected staff and even mistreats some children who have been traumatized or have complex mental health needs.
These revelations are drawn from interviews with more than 65 group household workers, youth, and child welfare experts, and from an exclusive analysis of a database of more than 10,000 reports of serious incidents, obtained through sol · freedom of information requests.
Also called SORs, reports are sent to the province by service providers, such as child welfare companies, home operators, and foster care agencies. For example, SORs document when a child dies, is injured, disappears, or is physically subject.
Between June 2020 and May 2021, Global / APTN research found that there were more than 1,000 reports of serious injuries and more than 2,000 reports of physical restraints, despite the province’s promise to “minimize” its use in 2017. .
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More than 12,000 children, aged 17 and under, were legally in charge of a child welfare society at any time in 2019, according to the latest provincial data.
What happens inside these homes is not disclosed to the public, unlike inspections of long-term homes or daycares, which are posted online.
Inspection reports from the Ministry of Children, Communities and Social Services also found cases of children sleeping on dirty mattresses, lack of access to basic medical or dental care or appropriate clothing.
Child services, which are used when children face abuse or neglect at home or are too difficult for their parents, are part of an ecosystem that serves children in Ontario at a cost of $ 1.8 billion. of dollars in 2020.
Of the approximately 300 licensed community homes in Ontario, nearly half are run by private “for-profit” businesses.
Ontario Shelter Groups and Homes with the Most Serious Incident Reports from May 2020 to June 2021. (Ata Mutahar / Global News)
For some operators, each foster child provides a source of income and includes a “price,” child welfare experts say.
“Money flows with [kids] but it does not flow to them, ”said Kiaras Gharabaghi, dean of community service at Metropolitan University of Toronto, formerly Ryerson University. “We’re talking about the private sector, we’re talking about generating profits, we’re talking about companies doing business through children as commodities.”
He said the data show that the current child welfare system does not focus on the “dignity and care” of young people.
“Right now … there is a young person in a group house somewhere who is hungry and not allowed to get food,” Gharabaghi said.
“There are young people all over the province who today move from one place to another, with all their belongings bagged in the garbage bags.
“This is fundamentally problematic.”
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The average cost of a bed for a group home is $ 315 a day, according to an analysis of Global News’s quarterly financial data sent by child support companies to the Ontario government. But for children with more complex needs that require an individual worker, that figure could rise to more than $ 1,200 a day, as in a case discovered by Global News / APTN.
And while private operators account for only 25% of beds across the province, they accounted for 55% of all SORs in foster homes and groups, including 83% of all physical restraints, 66% of missing youth complaints, 62 percent of medication errors and 31 percent of serious injuries.
Inside Mary Homes
An undated image by Amy Owen, Delana Land and Jessica Fowler. (Supplied)
Delana Land was reading the paranormal thriller What Lies Beneath in her bedroom one evening when a Mary Homes worker told her to turn off the lights.
After asking her to keep reading, she says there was an argument between her and the staff, which ended with a worker’s foot on her back.
“He ripped the book out of my hand and said he was resisting me,” said Land, who was 15 at the time. “In the end she stepped on my back and then I went down.”
Hailing from the first nation of Asubpeeschoseewagong in northern Ontario, Land arrived at a Mary Homes residence in 2015, some 2,000 miles from her home and family.
A private company, Mary Homes operates five group homes in the Ottawa area.
She said two workers physically held her before she fell to the ground.
“I was probably on the ground for about 20 minutes,” he said. “They were very bad.”
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For young people like Land, who have gone from house to house within the child welfare system, the experience can be terrifying.
“I tried to open the window and I couldn’t. There were keys in the windows … because they thought we would jump,” said Land, now 21. He said the shoes and jackets were closed to prevent the children from running away.
“It was pretty scary.”
Residents living in Mary Homes said the food was closed and they did not have access to mental health support. They also said the staff was poorly trained.
SOR 2020-2021 data showed that Mary Homes had the highest number of serious injury reports in the province.
An image of a staircase in the Rideau Center in Ottawa, where Deland Land lived. (Kenneth Jackson / APTN)
Unlike a foster home, Mary Homes staff work in shifts to supervise young people.
Land said the house was so bad that he fled after the death of 13-year-old Amy Owen. He lived on a staircase in the Rideau Center in Ottawa. In his opinion, it was better than living in Mary Homes.
“At least I could be me. I could be fine.”
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Mary Homes declined repeated requests to comment on former residents’ complaints. The company also declined to comment on data showing a high number of restrictions on its five group homes.
As of last January, the Ministry of Children, Communities and Social Services imposed conditions on Mary Homes collective housing licenses, including the introduction of an updated policy on the use of restrictions, which employees they should learn and comply. The ministry also instructed senior executives to follow up with staff within 24 hours of an incident. If the manager discovers that an employee did not follow provincial regulations, the manager should submit a report that should be kept in situ and available to ministry staff upon request.
At the same time, the ministry also pointed to one of Delana Land’s old houses: workers no longer had permission to close the children’s shoes.
A pattern of physical restraints
Data analyzed by Global News and APTN revealed a large number of incidents involving physical restraints, which may include immobilizing a child by the shoulders and wrists with arms outstretched, sometimes face down on the floor.
Although collective households account for only 20% of child care beds, they account for 90% of reports of physical restrictions on residential care.
According to provincial regulations, these measures are supposed to be used only when a child or adolescent is at imminent risk of injury to himself or others.
The three service providers with the most SORs — Interphase Child & Family Services, Mary Homes, and Hatts Off Inc. — accounted for nearly a quarter of all SORs and 58% of physical restraint reports.
“Restrictions are considered therapeutic interventions. I think the restrictions are acts of violence, “said Gharabaghi.” Certainly young people will tell you that they live them as acts of violence. “
“We have an official system, a system of public regulation, in which institutional violence is considered normal and good.”
‘I’m drowning’
Jessica Fowler entered Ontario’s child welfare system when she was just four years old. (Global news)
Jessica Fowler, originally from the Kingston area, was only four years old when she entered the child welfare system.
Separated from her sisters, she moved through the system 15 times, including cases where she said she was abused or “starved to death.”
“There’s nothing I can do about my situation,” he said.
“It’s scary when you’re there because you don’t know where you’re going.”
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He said the most violent experience was when he was 16 and came to a Mary Homes residence on the outskirts of Ottawa. He also lived in the Wilhaven residence of Mary Homes for a period of time.
Fowler said she was repeatedly humiliated, …