Looking at the Sixties Sxoop

The Sixties Scoop has come to represent the transition from Residential Schools as a means of controlling and disrupting Aboriginal families, communities and cultures across Canada. Indeed, Cindy Blackstock of the First People's Child and Family Caring Society has termed child welfare as the new Residential school.

An MRU journalism student sought to have a look at the Sixties Scoop and offer some insights into what that period was and profiles two people who were impacted by it. The blog can be found here.

In another relevant report, I have been part of a group that has been looking at how First Nations parents are assessed in the child welfare system. The report, Nistawatsimin: Exploring First Nations Parenting: A Literature Review and Expert Consultation with Blackfoot Elders:

This report provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of the scholarship that encompasses relevant topics surrounding the theme of Aboriginal parenting. It seeks to contribute to a larger conversation about the relationship between child protection services (CPS) and Aboriginal peoples. The focus is on how parents are considered and assessed by CPS. In this report, the authors raise the notion that the foundations of assessment have not been rooted in Aboriginal cultural and their world view of family and parenting.

It is one step in challenging how child protection looks at First Nations parents. It is rooted in a Blackfoot view and thus the work requires extension and adaptation to other Aboriginal cultures. But it is a place to start.

The tragedy of the Jian Ghomeshi case but it's not about the judge

The acquittal of Jian Ghomeshi on four counts of sexual assault has rightly caused an uproar in Canada. But the focus of the debate is not about what the judge did unless you want to congratulate him for doing precisely what we ask judges to of. He assessed the evidence and the credibility of it against the appropriate standard of whether or not there was a reasonable doubt. He concluded there was.

The real lessons come from what evidence was put in front of the judge which led to the decision. One might also criticize the theatrics of the defence counsel. One might go further and ask whether or not the case was presented in the light of what we really know about the victims of sexual assault.

In Canada, only about 6 per 100 cases of sexual assault are reported to the police. It's a pathetic statistic but there are many reasons why it exists:

• There is fear of how the victim will be judged - certainly we saw good reason for that fear based on how the victims were dealt with by Ghoneshi's lawyer. That lawyer will no doubt state that she was doing what she was supposed to do - vigorously defend her client. Yet, should a victim leave a cross examination more damaged when she came into the court? The Macleans magazine interview with one victim, Lucy DeCoutere illustrates the high price she paid.
• Witnesses are often not believed. My own experience with victims is that telling the story is a huge risk as the victim is not often seen that way. They are probed for evidence that they led the perpetrator on, failed to make clear they were not offering consent or had allowed themselves to become too impaired to properly protect themselves. It's called victim blaming and it's real.
• There is much shame arising from being a victim. This arises from some of the same victim blaming forces. There are also some communities and cultures who will also see the victim as forever "damaged goods". 

There are many other reasons but these are some of the most powerful. But there is one even greater reason - women are vulnerable to the societal structures that allow men to dominate, control and demand. We are still socializing boys to believe that somehow they "deserve" what they want which includes sex. 

The judge was missing some clear evidence that helped the court fully understand the behaviours of victims. What the women described on the stand (at least as reported by the media) is quite typical of victims of sexual assault. This includes believing that they were somehow at fault. This leads to further contact with the perpetrator. Victims are also often caught up in the enmeshed dysfunctional relationship were they feel they are responsible for making it better. Courts need expert evidence on these types of behaviours. The effects of sexual trauma also distort memory, impact decision making and influence the cohesiveness of the story. Traumatic memory can compartmentalize the story such that when it is told, it is told incompletely. The court also needs expert evidence to explain the neurobiology of traumatic memory and behaviours that arise from that. 

Children who have been sexually abused are just as likely as an adult not disclose, particularly given that the perpetrator is most often someone they know and trust. As Esposito (2015) notes:

Sadly, disclosure of childhood sexual abuse is often met with disbelief, anger, or rejection. This leaves a child feeling isolated, unnoticed and unsure. Children say they don’t disclose because they are afraid of the consequences to themselves and others, they feel ashamed or in some way responsible for the abuse, they are unsure whether an abuse has occurred, or they do not know where to turn to for help. Children therefore make calculated decisions about disclosing; they consider who they will tell, whether they will be believed and how much detail they should provide. (p.1)

We have an urgent conversation in Canada which is how to encourage disclosure and make it safe to do so. We must also speak about how these cases are managed in the courts. The Ghomeshi trial will have a chilling effect on the willingness and ability of victims to disclose. The real lesson from the trial: "You will not be believed; You will be attacked and vilified; Your perpetrator will get away with with it, so why try".

As a nation, we need to change these messages but we also need to change the message that sexual assault is ever permissible. The cultural position of boys and men needs to change (and yes, males are  by far the most common perpetrators). They need to truly understand that consent is a necessity.

Our non-judicial institutions also need to protect victims far better than they have been. There has been an avalanche of media coverage about sexual assault on post secondary campuses. These stories have, unfortunately, also highlighted how victims in post secondary are not protected. This is an example of how institutions can play a role in prevention but also in supporting victims.

The story of sexual assault needs changing. Ghomeshi's case took us further away from protection and prevention. The message is loud and clear - even if you are found out and charged, your chances of being convicted are poor. The odds are stacked in favour of perpetrators in this country. How truly sad!

Reference: Esposito, c. (2015). Child sexual abuse and disclosure: What does the research tell us? New South Wales: Office of the Senior Practitioner, Family and Community Services. Available at this link

Child Death Reviews - An American imperative?

Youth Today is reporting on a recommendation from a US Federal Commission that:

wants the states to examine all child abuse and neglect fatalities from the past five years as part of a national strategy to end such deaths.

The notion is interesting. Trying to understand what has gone wrong in the past is often seen as a way to help prevent further deaths. Looking into deaths has become common in many countries. For example:

• Serious Case Reviews in the UK are used as a way to find leanings from deaths that might help the child protection system do a better job protecting children
• Large scale formal public reviews are used by politicians to look into high profile cases. In Canada, there has been the Phoenix Sinclair review which published its report in 2015 after months of public hearings. Another example is the Victoria Climbe case in the UK.
• The Jeffrey Baldwin case saw a high profile Coroner's Inquiry which received national media attention.
• There are inquiries by agencies that represent children and youth such as the Child and Youth Advocate in Alberta which this week issued a report on the death of Lily. These reviews offer an independent lens on what might have gone wrong.

There are other methods as well such as aggregate reviews by third parties along with internal reviews. The latter are not typically made public. The advantage of many review processes is that they are public allowing citizens to feel that there is a sense of accountability.

There are downsides however. There is somehow a feeling that all deaths can be prevented. That is not the case as it is not possible to predict with any certainity who will or will not kill a child. There is also the negative impact that these stories have in child protection practice. In particular is the impact on worker's decision making - they tend towards bringing more children into care in order to not be the worker with the next case on the front page. That may not serve children well.

The recommendation in the United States may not be the best use of resources. There are literally hundreds of inquiries in the western world that show oft repeating patterns of practice errors that contribute to poor outcomes for children. A better use of resources might have been to analyze and learn from those inquires. A next step might be to set up a way to use that knowledge while also setting up methodologies to learn from new cases. Going back over a 5 year period will use a lot of resources and be unlikely to yield information that is different from the existing knowledge base.

By using existing data, there has been an opportunity to reframe how child protection is delivered. This is an opportunity missed. Doing it differently has more promise than spending time looking backward especially when a large database of such learning already exists.

Jeffrey Baldwin: A thematic analysis of media coverage and implications for social work practice

ABSTRACT

Jeffery Baldwin died in 2002 in the care of his maternal grandparents. The case received intense media attention at various times over an almost eight-year period. Along with other public documents, the media coverage permits an analysis of the practice errors by Child Protection Services that are related to the failure to protect Jeffrey. Nine key themes emerged around core child protection practices: opening a file; the role of prior knowledge; issues related to assessment; knowing the child and their needs; the role of culture; case supervision; the child as the client; the enmeshment of child abuse; and the role of stability and healing. This analysis offers key lessons to be learned from such cases.

This article has been published in Child Care in Practice

Sexual assault - two worrisome public events

The Canadian media has been buzzing with the trial of Jian Ghomeshi. He is a former broadcaster with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). There were women who came forward to tell of their allegations that sexual activity with Ghomeshi was not consensual. He was fired from the CBC and charged with several offences.

The trial has been high profile. It is perhaps the way that the women have been treated in the court that is the most sensational story. Their behaviour has been dissected in salacious detail. The women have been on trial as opposed to Ghomeshi who did not testify in his defence. The challenge is that victims of sexual assault suffer from memory distortions, enmeshed relationships, shame and guilt and a tremendous amount of fear about how they will be treated by friends, family and the community. The intense cross examination they received in court will have only added to these fragile emotional states. Stories from victims are typically disjointed and often have inconsistencies in them.

Jian Ghomeshi

We await the decision of the court in March.

However, the real lesson here is for other victims. There is little value in coming forward with your story. You will be treated badly. Your story will be challenged in a way that will go to the heart and will be discredited.

A good look at the memory issue can be found in this CBC story. What is important as a take away, is that traumatic memories are not formed and recalled in cohesive, through ways but more as the essential essence of what took place. By comparison, cross examination in courts will focus on minute details, inconsistencies, contradictions and things forgotten. In other words, cross examination will use the very weaknesses of traumatic memory as the basis to discredit the witness.

The second story comes out of the Vatican. As Time magazine reports (as do many other news outlets)

The Catholic Church is allegedly telling newly ordained bishops that they have no obligation to report child-sexual-abuse allegations to law-enforcement officials, saying instead that the decision to take such claims to the authorities should be left to victims and their families.

Given that the Roman Catholic church has been plagued with sexual abuse scandals for decades now, this announcement is somewhat incredulous. The Church is shifting responsibility off to the victims. Many victims will find that obligation onerous. It takes tremendous courage to come forth with sexual abuse allegations but now the victims are being told they must carry the burden further and make a separate decision to bring in the police. That is a lot to ask of victims. Again the Church is failing its victims.

However, there is a story here that is getting missed which is the obligation in many parts of the world to involve the authorities via child protection. A common theme through much child protection legislation in the developed world is that of mandatory obligation to report when a child may be at risk of harm. Most often that is thought of as a caregiver but priests, nuns and brothers often act in roles of parents in schools, orphanages, athletics and so on.

We see in Canada how the Church engaged in sexual and physical abuse of First Nations children in the Residential Schools for decades. Those children and their families lacked the capacity to get action. This should be remembered. The obligation to act should rest with the institution on whose behalf the cleric acts.

Both of these cases highlight how society continues to fail in their obligation to protect people from sexual abuse and assault. The clear messages are that victims will have to struggle to be heard, believed and protected from further abuse.

The graphic above shows very clearly that we have not created an environment where sexual assault can be spoken about. These two stories add to the power of silence. Even if Ghomeshi is found guilty, the trial has sent a clear message to victims, telling the truth is very hard to do and the way in which the case will be managed may do you a lot of harm.

UPDATE

The Associated Press reports that, since the course noted above for Catholic clerics:

Pope Francis' top adviser on clerical sex abuse says bishops have a "moral and ethical responsibility" to report all cases of suspected rape, molestation and other abuse to police — even where local laws don't require it.

A statement released by Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley goes beyond the Vatican's current guidelines for bishops. Those 2010 guidelines say bishops and superiors must report suspected cases where civil reporting laws require it.

O'Malley, who heads the pope's abuse advisory commission, issued the statement after a recent course for new Catholic bishops on handling abuse cases featured a French monsignor who reportedly said bishops don't have to report cases. He said it is up to families and victims to do so.

Child protection and the refugee crisis

It is impossible to read or listen to the news without the subject of the Syrian refugee crisis coming up. It is a displacement of people in mass numbers. Millions of people are internally displaced within Syria and externally displaced, particularly in the Middle East and Europe. Canada is in the process of taking in around 25,000 refugees.

The images show how terrifying and tragic the reality is for most of the refugees. Leaving the war zone has not lead to secure placement as they search for stability, acceptance, jobs, homes and the recreation of life for their family. Those watching the current refugee crisis will remind others that the world has faced such crisis before and will likely again.

For child protection in Canada, the vast majority of these newcomers will not become involved with that system. Some will for typically predictable reasons for the most part - challenges with coming to terms with parenting approaches, children whose trauma makes adjustment to school difficult leading to behavioural problems and emerging mental health concerns. We may hear about those stories as the media seeks to highlight families struggling.

Child protection and mental health services do have an important role. Helping families to understand Canada and the services available for the transition is top of mind. But there are also some important other steps - helping families connect with new communities; supporting economic connections; integrating children into schools; providing mental health supports at informal levels such that the emotional upheavals and challenges are normalized. Another role will be to help Canadians come to understand the newcomers and their experiences before arriving here.

Perhaps most importantly, is helping everyone realize that Canada has been accepting refugees for decades and done so successfully.

There will also be the challenges of ensuring that we do not lose our focus on vital public policy issues for child protection that need government funding and attention. Examples are the impact of homelessness and mental health for families of our veterans; ensuring that we implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and working with communities to reduce poverty that too often leads to neglect and child protection involvement. There is room for all of these agendas in Canada. The very worthy plight of the refugees has a prominent place on our national agenda but so do these other issues and yet others not mentioned here.

Psychometrics in Parenting Capacity Assessments: A problem for Aboriginal parents

My colleague Amber McKenzie and I have just had an article published on the use of psychometrics in parenting capacity assessments with Aboriginal parents. We raise a number of concerns

Abstract Parenting Capacity Assessments (PCA) are used by child protection workers to assist in determining the ability of a parent to care for their children. They may be used at various stages of the case management process but these assessments serve as powerful tools for decision making by these workers. They can also be introduced in court as part of expert testimony. Most PCAs utilize psychometric assessment measures to elicit data in respect to personality, parenting knowledge, as well as mental health and addiction issues. The authors argue that the norming of these measures has insufficient inclusion of Aboriginal peoples to be used for assessments with this population. They further argue that different approaches need to be developed as current approaches, including assessment measures, are based upon the constructs of the dominant culture, which is individualistic as opposed to the Aboriginal collectivistic approaches to parenting.

If you would like to read the article, here is a link to the First Peoples Child and Family Review