Are children protected?

Large case loads and high staff turnover in the Ministry of Children and Families mean children may suffer.

By CRIS LEYKAUF CHILDREN jin foster. care around the province, includ- ing those in Terrace, aren't getting the attention they deserve.

Child . protection workers have very high numbers ‘of cases on their hands and staff. responsible ..for .foster. parents don’t have enough time to make sure’ children are safe in those foster homes.

That’s what. Wiho Papen- brock, the BC Government

Employee ‘Unien’s (BCGEU) regional ‘coor- dinalor:- for -this --area, © is claiming,

“*There’s- not enough resources to meet govern- ment expectations — and

there’s not enough people in the system to do the job,” says Papenbrock.

His comments echo some of ihose contained: in. the recent report card on . the Children and Families Min- istry, pul out dy the BCGEU.

The. report card came on the one year anniversary of the new ‘super-ministry, which. combined "services for children under onc government roof.

Over 1,200 frontline and contracted workers were asked to grade the ministry. They gave ita fail on every question, from unmanage- able workloads “and in- adequate training, to lack of consultation with staff.

Minister Penny . Priddy was in Terrace two weeks ago when the report card came out She — ack- nowledged that case load levels are too high in some areas, particularly the north, She says case loads in the north average between 30- 60 per worker.

BCGEU local chair Curtis Cameron says his members have told him that in the Terrace office, an: auxiliary. worker on: the job for ‘just six weeks already has 45 cases.. And she’s working overtime to Keep up. Plus, since she's not a full time

employee, she’s not received any on-the-job training. ,

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Gambling

help here - but no casino

CHILDREN AND FAMILIES minister Penny Priddy didn’t have much to say on why Terrace has been given money for a gambling = addictions counsellor. -Greg McQuarrie, a former youth addic- ‘tions counsellor, has been hired for the job. ° Priddy acknowledged that the timing between his hiring, and a provincial gaming ex- pansion might’ look suspicious. But she said B.C, was one of only two provinces in the . country which didn’t have a devel- oped gambling addic- tions . program, —al- though Priddy did say the province had a 1- 800 number for _gam- bling addicts. -

gambling addictions ‘services, Priddy said B.C. had one of the highest recovery rates for gambling addicts i in the country. When asked why Eve Kusnick, the Skeena area manager for the alcohol and drug ser- vices branch, refused |. to comment on McQuarrie’s position, Priddy was puzzled. She said nothing about the gambling addic-

tions program was}. being kept © under wraps,

Two workers responsible for foster parents have 55 and 42 homes on their case list. Do: those workers have enough time: to make sure foster children are being cared for in safe environ- ments? Probabiy not.

“The job the foster parents do is increasingly

to developmental delays and conditions like Fetal Al- cohol Syndrome. And the‘ other thing foster parents are asking for is more visits from social workers.

Tt comes down to money

— more money to hire more staff, and to develop better

“The job the foster parents do is increasingly hard and demanding, The more support they’re given, the better the job they’ll do, When they don’t receive that support they have less ability to meet the needs of children.’’

hard and demanding. The more support they’re given, the better the job they’ll do. When they don’t receive that support they have Icss ability to mect the needs of children,” says Cameron.

A ministry task force con- ducted over. the summer -found that: the . ministry needs to recruit more foster parents. But ‘foster parents are leaving the ministry be- .cause of inadequate support. * The support most foster parents wanl, says Priddy, is respile care, to give them a break from the pressures of caring for demanding chil- dren, particularly those who have complicated needs due

support programs.

“I have to see how I fare at treasury board,’’ said Priddy.

She hopes that during govermment budget discus- sions more money will be handed to the ministry.

BCGEU president John Shields has asked for $50 million extra to be spent on new staff. That would work out ta about 1,000 new jobs, estimated Priddy.

“It’s not very likely,’’ she says of that possibility.

However, Priddy did have some new information about how the budgets will be handled,

The Terrace office has a

budget of $32 million. Deci- sions on how that budget will be spent are now to be decided by the Terrace of- fice. That’s a brand new

change, says Priddy. The

ministry wants to make sure that people who know what's happening on the front lines are the ones making the financial deci- sions.

As for the BCGEU’s charges of a lack of consul- tation, Priddy is confused.

She says her deputy minis- ter meets regularly with BCGEU president John Shields.

The union has also joined the ministry on a cascload review committee which has been meeting regularly since carly spring. Front linc ‘social workers and adminis- trative staff fom every region arc included in the meetings, she SAY§.., 5 yy

One of the successes of: .

‘the committee she points to _

is reducing the possible forms workers might have to fill out to 80 from 560. “To say there’s no consul- tation — that’s a bit of a puzzlement,”' says Priddy. But Cameron doesn’t think there’s been enough consultation. He says the

ministry’s idea of consulta- tion is to ‘inform us when something is done.’’

Another problem in regional offices is that of stress leave. For example, in Quesnel over a third of the staff is off on sick or stress leave.

But stress leave isn’t as big an issue in the Terrace branch of the Children and Families ministry, Priddy says only two out of a staff of 28.5 peaple have gone on stress leave during the last year.

However, the turnover rate here is reported to be quite high. District’ supervisor Sharon MacCrimmon recently transferred to Hazelton. Rumours say the acting district supervisor plans to transfer as well.

In the last six months three long-time workers have transferred out, says Cameron. tan vi

‘Priddy’. ‘says, “the tumpover, « rate, particularly for child protection workers is proba- bly about 8-10 per cent in the north. That’s fairly high, she acknowledged, but said it’s a high stress job, and northern regions always ex- perience higher tumover, no matter the profession.

h

Survey says families ministry okay

EMPLOYEES AT the Ministry for Children and Families may have given the ministry a failing grade, but ministry clients were a Jot more salisfied,

Two weeks ago the BC Government Employees Union released a report card on the one-year-old ministry. The focus was on child protection. Employees complained about their workload, lack of consultation and a lack train-

ing.

The day before the union handed out its report card, the ministry released its own version -— a client satisfaction

survey.

Although the survey was positive, union critics say it barely touched on their areas of concern, dealt with by the

report card,

Done at a cost of $95,000, the survey was completed by the Viewpoints research firm this fall. Nearly a thousand clients: were queslioned about four ministry programs:

_ family support, including children in care; public health; special nceds; and daycare, including financial support,

The survey asked clients if it was easy to get help from

the ministry, how helpful the ministry was, if clients got the service they wanted and if the ministry had a positive

impact.

The responses ranged from 72-87 per cent overall in

favour of the ministry,

However, of the 961 people surveyed, only 120 of those were in the family support area that dealt with child pro- tection. And areas such as homemaking support were also

included in that category.

So less than 15 per cent of the survey respondents were queried about things like foster care arrangements, pointed out Wiho Papenbrock, regional coordinator for the

BCGEU.

And that’s the area where the ministry is critically short

on resources, hie says.

‘We're happy that the clients are satisfied with the ser- vice they’re receiving,” says Papenbrock. ‘‘But not at the

expense of other areas,

“It changes nothing terms of the price that we're paying. We'll stand on our report card.””

ae ed ive

Despite this lack of "

Grassroots group to help kids

By SALWA FARAH SOMETHING good is taking root in Terrace.

A group of organizations dedicated to the well being of families bas put together a grass-roots committee to help fix existing problems in the com- munity.

Called the Child and Family Man- agement Committee, the group is made up of different agencies — Kermode Friendship Society, Circle of Harmony, K’san House Society, Reconnect, Family Place, Caledonia First Nations counselors and the Na-

-tive Courtworkers and Counselling

Association of B.C,

The committee was formed by Kara Wright, youth and family advocate

' with the Native Family Advocate Pro- gram.

“Part of my mandate is to know the

resources that are oul there and know

how we can all work together,’’ said

Wright about why the committee was

formed.

“We have a common client load. Sometimes we all work together with the same cllents,’’ explained Wrighi, adding that they: all share a common goal of keeping the family together by providing a support system for.

parents.

Wright says the group is looking for alternatives to child apprehension — something they all feel may some- times be to the detriment to the fam- ily. “It’s hard for the families to get the children back,”’ she said.

Lil Tugwell, of the Kermode Friend- ship Society, agrees.

“Our main thing is what to do with child apprehension and working to- gether to help families who have had children apprehended,”’ said Tugwell.

“In the first year we need to educate ourselves more on the policies of so- cial services so we know what these people are entitled to,'’ she said about the importance of knowing what resources are available for their clients.

‘As a commitiee, we have no mandate. We're getting © together, brainstorming, talking about problems we have and finding ways to solve these problems," said Wright

There have only been two meetings so far, but they have been very inspir- ing and positive, sald Wright.

The committee would eventually like to take its recommendations to the Ministry of Children and Families.

Kara Wright

Tis ultimate goal is to create a smoother system and to dull out the rough edges that often create {r- reparable barriers between children and their parents,

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 10,1997 - AS

ne CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD

The Mail Bag

Local planters at risk

Dear Sir;

For the last year the forest industry in the northwest has been having difficulty to say the least. There are many good explanations such as poor foreign markets, Repap’s near-bankrupicy, a tough Forest Practices Code, and Forest Renewal’s super-stumpage. ,

Tam concerned that politicians and senior bureaucrats

4

within the Ministry of Forests are not doing everything :

within their power to ease the pressure on n the citizens of the northwest.

My reference pertains specifically to the silviculture:

industry. Though commonly seen as the bottom rung on the forestry ladder it nevertheless remains a good source of employment of many people. For relatively small amounts of money, many people are employed due to the intensely manual nature of the job. Un- fortunately silviculture is a liability to the province. Thus it remains in the shadows as the senior bureaucrats of the Ministry of Forests’ focus their at- tention on the profits of stumpage.

Of the money allocated to tree planting within the Kalum forest district for 1997, 77 per cent went to non- local contractors. This represents over $579,100 or over 75 jobs during the planting window. In 1997 large volume eiigibility requirements barred all but one local contractor from even bidding on $495,800 or 66 per cemt of the seedlings planted by the ministry.

Though not all contracts have been awarded for 1998 it appears this situation is not likely to change soon. Many local contractors are having great difficulty ob- taining work for their employees who are facing un- necessary layoffs in the 1998 season.

Throughout the province other forest district offices

have instituted programs to protect local jobs. These:

programs include the use of local only contractor lists and a 10 per cent tolerance for local contractors. Alas change seems to be slow arriving here.

Northwest licensees taken great strides in ensuring that local jobs are protected and focal skills kept busy. It scems ironic that the massive multinational forest companics answerable to their investors and driven by profits are actually more capable of protecting jobs than our elected socialist government.

Helmut Giesbrecht, being a politician who has so diligently fought for the security of northwest forest jobs, can you please explain these numbers to me.

D. Mortis, Terrace, B.C,

Scouts remember

Dear Sir:

ft has come to my attention after the Remembrance Day ceremony that some members of the public felt that Scouting did not have a place in the Remembrance Day parade or ceremony.

I can’t say if these people fell the same way about other youth organizations involvement or the presence of children at the ceremonics and 1 do not presume to do so. ,

, I would like to briefly provide a little history to show - that ‘Scouting does: have a place at’ Remembrance Day - ceremonies and always has.

The Scouting movement was heavily involved in ihe war effort during both world wars by helping through community projects to send aid to our men at the front.

We also had members directly involved in both con- flicts. There were many Scout and Cub Masters who lef us and never returned.

Terrace’s first Scoutmaster was a veleran of the First World War. The names of his comrades in arms appear on Terace’s cenolaph.

There were many Scouting members who gave their lives during the world wars — 10,000 from the United Kingdom alone in the First World War.

How many young men did Canada lose who had an affiliation with Scouting? I am not sure, but more than likely there were may accounts of Scouting members involvement in the two world wars, too many to recount in this Ictter.

Members of Scouting also have a long list of awards and decorations including 11 Victoria Crosses for gal- lantry above the call of duty.

We are involved in the parades today not only to °

honour our members but all young people who gave their lives during conflict.

We also hope to instill remembrance in our youth members to make them aware of the horrible time in our history and through this to help them be better citizens. Hopefully, if they do remember, when we turn this world over to their care that they will see to it that their differences are settled peacefully and not through the horrors of war.

We hope that they will continue to take the time to remember those who suffered the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

In our Scout Promise, we promise to love and serve our country and our fellow man, As Scouts we do this in many ways; onc of them is by remembering on Remembrance Day those who served.

Eric Harkonen, Terrace, B.C,

Casino vote wanted

Dear Sir:

Re: Terrace city council’s recent decision to reject a casino in the City of Terrace without taking it to referendum.

I am not an active lobbyist in support of gaming or gambling in the community, and the fact that the casino was rejected is not the center of my concern.

I believe in a democratic process thal not only listens to the citizens, but allows them to ultimately be a part of the decision making. In this casc, I feel that a referendum should have been called.

I believe that the job of any politician is to represent the constituents as a whole and not to confuse this with personal feelings of principles and morality. It is

reprehensible to me that any decision thal may have far -

reaching effects on the communily are made by a hand- ful of people.

] applaud Mr. Tim Down for his stand on this issue, because it appears that out of six city councilors, he is the only one that would want the people to have the op- portunily to decide for themselves.

James D. Fraser, Terrace B.C,

More letters Page A11.