Goldie Ghamari - October 03, 2018


Question Period - Children's Mental Health Services in Northern Ontario


Episode Stats


Length

3 minutes

Words per minute

145.15

Word count

555

Sentence count

34

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Learn English with the new Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, Marie-Allie Poirier, who delivers a statement to the Ontario House of Commons after the Chief Coroner of Ontario releases a report on the high rates of Indigenous youth suicides in residential care.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Next question. The member for Carleton.
00:00:05.800 Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.
00:00:17.360 According to an Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences report, suicide rates in
00:00:22.880 northern Ontario were six times higher than the provincial average, whereas southern Ontario was
00:00:29.280 comparable to the provincial average. Furthermore, suicide rates in Canada are five to seven times
00:00:36.480 higher for First Nations youth than for non-Indigenous youth. Today, the Chief Coroner
00:00:42.800 of Ontario's expert panel report on residential housing deaths was released. The safety and
00:00:49.520 security of children is of the utmost importance to us all. Could the Minister tell this House
00:00:55.920 what steps are being taken to ensure incidents like this are never repeated.
00:01:00.320 Mr. Children, Community and Social Services.
00:01:03.200 Ms. Thank you very much, Speaker. I want to thank the member from Carleton for her
00:01:06.480 advocacy on suicide prevention and for her compassion here today.
00:01:11.680 I'd like to thank the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario and the expert panel for
00:01:15.840 putting out this report and the recommendations. The experience of the children outlined in this
00:01:20.640 report are heartbreaking. The death of a child, particularly in care, is unacceptable. My heart
00:01:32.160 goes out to the families, the loved ones, and communities affected by these tragedies. The
00:01:36.720 deaths are unacceptable, and I'm going to take immediate action. We need to do more to make sure
00:01:42.000 children are safe and cared for. If a child dies, someone is responsible. We must improve
00:01:49.840 coordination among service providers as well as throughout our ministries. I'm currently engaging
00:01:55.360 with the Ontario Child Advocate, the coroner, Indigenous community leaders, as well as the
00:01:59.680 LGBTQ leaders. From the CASs to group homes to my ministry, we all bear some responsibility,
00:02:07.920 and I want to ensure the House, that as the new minister, the buck stops with me, and I will take action.
00:02:12.480 I understand that mental health services available to children in care are often limited
00:02:27.140 or ineffective.
00:02:30.680 Can the minister please clarify what steps are being taken to give our most vulnerable
00:02:35.580 more support when they need it the most?
00:02:38.860 The experiences of the young people described in this report were very difficult for me
00:02:44.960 to read, and it was a very difficult briefing from the coroner last week.
00:02:49.080 Our government will take action to bring systemic changes to the residential services system.
00:02:54.900 Together with partners from the child welfare sector, Indigenous communities, LGBTQ2S partners
00:03:00.960 and the ministers of health, education and Indigenous affairs, we will take a collective
00:03:05.980 approach to help residential placements and coordination between government agencies.
00:03:10.600 So let me be perfectly clear, I am going to take immediate action to put in place better
00:03:14.920 screening protocols for youth who are at risk and who need help.
00:03:18.900 I'll issue a directive to the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, CASs
00:03:23.220 and group homes to put the child first. 0.59
00:03:26.360 It's not about checklists, it's about taking responsibilities for a child's well-being.
00:03:31.600 We're going to continue to improve inspections to lay out clear lines of responsibility and
00:03:35.660 ensure supports are in place and, finally, will support youth and their workers to access
00:03:40.460 mental health services and resources when and where they are needed.
00:03:44.540 But let me be perfectly clear, this government for the people will put children in care first.