Foster Care is part of the deal!

Over the next 10 months, Jake and his brother were moved 11 times, sometimes in short succession.

This quote is from a report issues by the Saskatchewan Advocate, Bob Pringle. The report details the events that occurred to Jake prior to his death. In taking a child into care, we enter into a bargain with them that care will be better. As the report notes, Jake was a vulnerable child.

Our investigation found that Jake was vulnerable in many ways due to his young age, the challenges presented by his parents, his inability to talk along with suspected delays in other areas, and his 11 placements during his 19 months in care. (p.5)

This is a serious challenge for a child. Coming from dysfunction, systemically Jake was placed in a form of systemic dysfunction but with strangers. Pringle also notes that the role of child protection when a child is in care is to act as a parent so they should do that - which can be tough when the parent is a system that cannot offer stability in placement and relationships. Children can pay a price for that.

(child protection) did not prioritize Jake's developmental health in the management of his case, as they should have when acting as his parent. As a result, many opportunities to address his suspected developmental delays were missed. (p.5)

It is not that others were unconcerned, as the report notes that several other professionals had raised their worries for Jake. As the report title suggests, Jake got lost in the system.

I pondered the issues of foster care as well when I saw the story of Detective Jack Mook. He is a Pittsburgh police officer who found two boys living in foster care in what is described as horridly deficient conditions. His story is reported by the Huffington Post. However, this is a story of a system who appears to have lost sight of two boys who ought not to have been living in the home. It appears not to have been a fit place for them. Fortunately, this story has a happier chapter now being written.

Fostering got a further bad rap as a Calgary foster parent was convicted of sexual assaults of several children in his care over a period of years. The Calgary Herald reports that the abuse seems to have gone on for about 9 years.

Yet fostering is tough work typically done by highly dedicated people who seek to offer temporary or longer term care to children who cannot be with their families. Research recently published by Thompson, McPherson & Marsland remind us that there is a cost, particularly for family who have their own biological children in the home. Relationship change as a result of the foster children. These researchers note that biological children place importance in their position within the family (e.g. oldest, youngest). This forms part of how they relate to their parents. This positional security can be disrupted with foster children also present. Foster children also bring competition for parental resources - a competition that biological children must enter.

Foster parents and their children need support. As the story of Jake illustrates, children coming into foster care arrive often with significant challenges that can place a great deal of demands on the whole of the family system. The biological relationships still need nurturing while creating room for the foster children to be part of the family.

As children come into care we offer them a bargain that this will be better. We have a real obligation to honour the bargain. But we also have an obligation to effectively support foster parents and their biological children.

Psychological Maltreatment - This may be where the bigger story exists

A new study published in the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy raises the notion that the impact of psychological trauma is greater over the long term versus other forms of abuse. While certainly not diminishing the impact of other abuse, this research really helps us to see how important taunting, demeaning, bullying, insults, shunning and isolation can be. These behaviours strike at the very heart of the worth of the victim and seem to create long term changes to the victim.

I had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Monty Montgomery from the University of Saskatchewan at a recent conference. He talked about the power of transformation. This research is really about how psychological abuse transforms the person to one whose self understanding is rooted in a lack of seeing the self as worthy. The research noted that there is a link to depression, anxiety, attachment and substance abuse.

Yet we are also faced with the fact that psychological maltreatment is a hard form of abuse for child protection to address. How bad does it have to be? Certainly there is a need for some level of persistent pattern by a parent or caregiver - but I suggest that we do not understand the level of harm needed for child protection involvement. Further, it is probable that other forms of abuse (sexual, physical) are perceived as much more dangerous. They are also easier to substantiate.

If we are going to be successful reducing all forms of inter personal violence, then we have to accept that this is one that must be addressed. When we take a child and debase their worth in childhood, they will move into adulthood well versed in becoming a victim. It is in childhood that we create protective attitudes that allows a person to draw the line against violence in many forms.

But we are also a society that values psychological violence - the audience waits for the moment when the person gets voted off the island and reality shows thrive on the put downs of participants. Then there are role models like MMA fighting.

It is a very different notion when we ask what can I do to help the other person feel valued.

Social workers need more support, says expert

The following article appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix following my presentation at the Prairie Child Welfare Consortium Symposium

BY BETTY ANN ADAM, THE STARPHOENIX OCTOBER 2, 2014 4:46 AM

Lessons learned from inquiries into foster child deaths usually don't get discussed with front line social workers, an expert in child protection says.

"Inquiries keep talking about the same practise problems ... We're not having enough conversation with front-line social workers about what the inquiries are telling us," said Peter Choate, a social work professor at Calgary's Mount Royal University who has studied almost 1,000 deaths of children in care in Canada, the U.K., New Zealand, Australia and the United States.

Inadequate case assessments, training and supervision are common themes emerging from the inquiries, Choate said.

Good case plans depend upon thorough assessments that include people who are too often "invisible" - the child and new adults in the child's life, he said.

Too often children at risk are not actually seen or talked to by social workers. New boyfriends or other adults who are in the picture are ignored.

Social workers need to be willing to question information they receive and they need to be able to talk with supervisors about what they've gathered, Choate said.

"How do we get our social workers and child protection workers to be more reflective about the information they need and how to gather that information and what to do with that information? What are the barriers to getting good assessments?" Choate said in an interview Wednesday, at the opening of a threeday conference for social workers and policy-makers from across Western Canada.

The inquiries show that supervisors who discuss findings and decisions made with the front-line social workers yield better results, he said.

"If the assessment's been done well and the family's really been listened to in the assessment process, then outcomes are better."

Social workers' skills can't be taken for granted. Newly graduated professionals still need years of supervision and experience, in addition to specialized training in things like addictions, mental health, sexual assault, physical and emotional abuse, child development and risk.

Child death inquiries must create conversations between the public, families, child protection agencies and government about learning how to do a better job, he said.

"If they're about shame and blame, nothing useful comes from them because people take cover, they don't want their case to be the next one in the newspaper.

"It's tough work. Turnovers are high. If we pay for enough social workers, provide them with good supervision and support and give them the opportunity to do the job well, then our turnovers will go down," Choate said.

The funding problem is acute in federally funded First Nations child welfare authorities, which are said to receive about 22 per cent less funding than provincially funded agencies. "You have a moral, ethical question of why would you be funding First Nations child welfare at a lower rate," Choate said.

"If we want to make the apology that (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper made about the tragedy of residential schools, then you have to be willing to make that apology real, to fund the work necessary to repair that, which is partially through funding the child welfare resources available to First Nations communities."

The funding disparity is the basis of a discrimination complaint against the Government of Canada that was brought to the Canadian Human Rights Commission by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations.

A tribunal has been hearing evidence on the matter since early 2013. Final arguments will be heard Oct. 20 to 24 in Ottawa.

badam@thestarphoenix.com

© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

Child custody and access issues as a child protection problem

Recently in Alberta, we saw the case where the mother of Amber Lucius is alleged to have killed her daughter. Apparently this was related to custody and access issues. Such cases are at the extreme although anyone who works with families can talk about cases where children have been caught in the middle of parents who seem to never give up the battle.

Here are some thoughts about when child protection might get involved in these cases.

Prime Minister Harper should call a national inquiry into the deaths of Aboriginal women

The funeral this weekend of 15 year old Tina Fontaine is preceded by the deaths of 1180 First Nations women in Canada over the past 30 years. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's response is that this is a criminal matter only. Thus, he believes that each case should be addressed by police within the criminal justice system. How sad.

Tina Fontaine

It is true that these are crimes. But it is also true that there are significant historical, political and social issues at play that make being an Aboriginal female much more dangerous than being a non-Aboriginal female. How do we address these forces? What can we do to make the Canada a much safer place for Aboriginal women? What policies do governments across Canada need to bring in? Given that child protection was involved with Tina, what might they have done to enhance her safety? These are just a few questions (of which I am sure there could be many more) that are not answered by a criminal justice approach to this problem.

Yes, we should bring the murderer of Tina to justice. But we need to do more. Join me in asking Prime Minister Harper to call a public inquiry by signing my petition at change.org

Not all sex offenders are high risk

There is a need to change the public and professional conversation around sex offenders. The present debate centres around the perception that all sex offenders are high risk. This affects public policy as well as how people respond to someone with a sex offending history.

Certainly there are some high risk, multiple offenders who deserve the highest level of scrutiny that we can offer. In Canada, we need only think of Paul Bernado to bring to mind those we are less likely wandering the streets. In addition, we certainly don't want an approach that fails to recognize how devastating sexual assaults are on victims. Those who have been assaulted, regardless of how young or old, should have significant supports through the health care and criminal justice systems.

Paul Bernardo

Where things go off the rails, is when we view all sex offenders as belonging to one risk group. This would have us spending large amounts of money and resources for all offenders when really they should be spent in accordance with risk. This is a tough conversation to have as we rightly find sexual assault so offensive.

In Canada, we have a group of world recognized researchers who have helped to develop a series of actuarial tools that assist in determining the relative risk that an individual poses. These tools are well researched and have good predictive ability, albeit certainly not perfect. There are no perfect tools in any field for predicting calamity. We know that we face a risk by getting in the car. Based upon certain driving behaviours, your risk of an accident will go up. But even with high risk behaviours, such as speeding and driving while impaired, we cannot predict with certainty that you will have an accident. When you go into hospital for surgery, they can give you odds about how successful the surgery is likely to be, but they cannot guarantee it.

As a society, we seem to want greater certainty with sex offenders than we want with other forms of risk. Perhaps understandable given the life changing nature of the crime upon the victim. But we cannot jail everyone who has committed a crime we find abhorrent.

The Canadian research group has long been looking at the relative risk of offenders and thus, the level of service need that should be applied to an offender.  They have now published new research that concludes that high risk sex offenders may not be high risk forever. This is important work as it helps to sort out those who stay high risk from those whose risk diminishes over time.

Their work looked at a group of offenders over a 20 year follow up period. Thus, this is what is known as longitudinal research. It also looked at a large number of offenders - 7.740 who had been incarcerated. Their conclusions matter:

• The risk was highest during the first few years after the offender is released from jail. This suggests that we more intense supports and monitoring in the period following release really does matter;
• The longer an offender remained sex offence free, the more the risk lowered. The researchers found this to be particularly true for the high risk offenders. 

Thus, we should be careful to ensure that there is careful consideration of the re-offence patterns of offenders. The longer that there is a lack of re-offeding, the lower the risk. Of course, low risk does not mean risk free. Thus, there remains no sense in taking someone with an offence history and placing them in charge of children. 

So what can we do? Here are some thoughts:

• properly assess offenders for level of risk using actuarial tools. Then assign offenders to the appropriate level of supervision. For example, it makes no sense to put a low risk offender in groups with high risk offenders. This tends to increase the level of risk of the low risk offender;
• Monitor individuals over time to ensure that they are monitored relative to risk;
• Ensure that agencies that are responsible for working with children screen for those who are inappropriate  to work with children. An example of when this was not done (and there are many examples) us found here
• Listen carefully when children talk about behaviours of adults that could be concerning;
• Listen when other adults feel that a person in a caring position appears to be behaving in ways that don't feel right; and
• follow up.

Research reference:

Hanson, R.K., Harris, A.J., Helmus, L. & Thornton, D. (2014). High risk sex offenders may not be high risk forever. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. In Press.

Government economic policy as a social determinant to childhood maltreatment

This is a notion that has been written about largely in academic presses. A recent book by the English academic, Nigel Parton, who has written extensively on child protection issues in the UK has raised the subject again. The book is worth a read, but in particular is the final chapter which brings together how government policies can, in and of themselves, act as forms of child abuse - or at least as the social determinant of maltreatment.

Parton and others have noted that, as economies worsen, so do the rates of child maltreatment. The pressures on the poorer populations, those facing greater levels of marginal and challenging existence, will face extraordinary pressures that connect to maltreatment. Thus, government policies that make social security weaker, access to health care more difficult, reduce access to reasonably paying jobs are instigators of the social determinants of child abuse. Yet, in this world of renewed political conservatism, the answer is found in the belief that these people need to take responsibility for themselves and manage their lives better.

As the economic gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged grows, the ability of the lower economic groups of people to just survive is a world of strain. As people like the Koch brothers pressure for policies that increase their advantage, there are direct costs to society at the other end.

There are other government policies that also are forms of child abuse. Consider policies that place parents in jail for a variety of minor crimes that are associated with economic survival. Consider three strike laws. Consider the utter failure of the war on drugs and the large numbers of low level dealers and users incarcerated. Consider minimum mandatory sentences that keep parents and economic family supporters in jail longer. Also consider the new law in Tennessee which jails a women who has used substances in a pregnancy.

The governments who drive these policies are done so by ideology, not science. It is known that increased rates of incarceration and longer sentences do not make neighborhoods safer. Yet, playing to ideology leads to ignoring science and doing it anyway. As Parton notes, when economic policy punishes the poorer classes through unemployment and restricted social service benefits, it is their neighborhoods that get more dangerous.

Child protection is mainly an activity that has the poorer or economically challenged populations at their doors more so than other groups. Most forms of child maltreatment are not from the more economically advantaged sectors, with the exception of sexual abuse which is more spread through the population.

Parton and others also note that child maltreatment is not just at the hands of family and that many others can threaten a child – such as institutional abuse as seen through the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts and cases where the image of the abuser has caused a blindness to the behavior (such as Rolph Harris and Jimmy Savile).

This should cause us to think about the role that our institutions play in child maltreatment – government through its social policies and other institutions through their policies as well as the blind eyes to the behaviors of the

powerful. The highly influential and very rich who press government to engage in policies that are very much to their benefit, and at the cost of the lower classes, should also be thought of as child maltreaters through their approaches that create direct harm. When a company believes that its profits should not be reduced for a higher minimum wage, it creates further pressures in lower classes which is a further social determinant of child maltreatment.

This is not a polemic against profit and corporations. To the contrary, vibrant economies do reduce rates of maltreatment. It is a case against the “greed” that believes the income gap growing is justified regardless of the costs to others and the costs to children. This is not a socialist manifesto but rather a democratic one where the rights of all really do matter.

It is also worth noting from Parton’s book that the majority of cases of maltreatment are not known to child protection services. Child maltreatment may be a much more common form of parenting than we are prepared to acknowledge.  As he states on p. 182 of the book, referring to UK data:

“…only a small proportion of abuse ever becomes known to official agencies and is therefore included in official statistics. The research also established that in 22.9% of cases where a young person aged 11-17 was physically hurt by a parent or guardian, nobody else knew about it, as with 34% of cases of sexual assault by an adult and 82.7% of cases of sexual assault by a peer.”

Of course, this also tells us that there are risks for children that are very real outside of the family which says something about the real behavioral values of society. Peers are a major source of maltreatment but one has to ask where did that value come from. In far too many cases, they reflect what has existed in the family.

Parton also goes on to point out how much of the violence that occurs to children, from a parent or guardian or from a peer, is initiated by males. This is not to say that a female cannot and does not initiate violence, only that males continue to be the major source. Despite the myriad of social and public health marketing, we continue to fail to alter gender based violence. Very concerning indeed.