Children’s Advocate getting ready for growing responsibilities

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This article was published 20/11/2017 (2889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Office of the Children’s Advocate of Manitoba is gearing up for legislation that will significantly expand its scope of practice, even though the government can’t say just when that might be.

Bill 9 was passed in June, although a government spokeswoman says details still need to be finalized before it can be proclaimed. She couldn’t provide a timeline. When it is, the office of children’s advocate will advocate not just for children involved with child welfare or adoption services, but also those accessing disability services, educational programming, mental health and addictions services, victim support services and youth justice services.

Daphne Penrose’s office has, in the last six months, been getting ready to handle anywhere between dozens and hundreds of new cases.

“We don’t know what that number looks like yet,” she said, “we do know that this new legislation opens up our capacity to advocate for thousands more children than we have right now.”

The preparations are a key part of her office’s most recent annual report, released Monday, which acts as a bridge of sorts between the previous advocate and Penrose, who stepped into the role in April. In addition to expanded advocacy services, Penrose’s office will also have increased authority when it comes to special investigative reviews.

Right now, a review can only be done when a child under the age of 18 dies and has received some form of child welfare or adoption services care in the year before their death. Soon, the advocate’s office will do reviews for deaths across multiple services including mental health and addiction services, as well as for people between the ages of 18 and 21 who were receiving some form of transition support services when they died.

“There will be a need for additional resources for sure,” said Penrose, although she couldn’t put an exact number on it. “Right now we are looking at what that’s going to look like.”

Her office currently handles thousands of cases each year and dozens of special investigation reviews.

During the 2016-2017 fiscal year, it opened more than 2,500 cases, the vast majority of which it was able to close. It also launched 53 new special investigation reviews, in addition to the 38 that were still in progress from the previous year. The office managed to close 47 by the end of the year, but will carry 44 into the current fiscal year.

Child and youth suicide remains at the forefront, Penrose said.

The office of the child advocate is in the midst of rolling out a pilot project geared toward getting young people, particularly between the ages of 8 and 12, the suicide education resources they need. Over the last two fiscal years, 31 young people have died by suicide.

The pilot project is phase three of a multi-phase attempt to address suicide in Manitoba, Penrose said.

“What it’s intended to do is to be able to provide some information about tangible resources that could be used to help youth navigate and find different ways of coping with some of the feelings that they’re having,” she said.

One of the difficulties has been helping families figure out how to talk about suicide, Penrose said, noting that concerns that talking about suicide might trigger a suicide linger despite a significant body of research proving otherwise.

The pilot is being brought into select Winnipeg schools this month and over the remainder of the school year is expected to reach roughly 450 students in 19 classrooms. The intention is to expand it to the rest of the province, where many of the young people disproportionately affected by suicide live.

In the upcoming year, the office of the children’s advocate also plans to launch a satellite office in northern Manitoba.

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca