BC’S Independent Representative for Children and Youth has issued a report on suicide and self-harm by youth in government care, and she says more could have been done to help them.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond looked at 15 youths who committed suicide and another 74 who harmed themselves over a three year period beginning in 2007.
Turpel-Lafond says instability was a common theme, with 58 of those youths having been moved a total of 776 times while in government care.
“Despite that, we didn’t plan well for them, we didn’t support them adequately, the ministry really did not do its job as a prudent parent for these kids and we didn’t give them the mental health supports that they obviously need that a prudent parent would give for their own child.”
Turpel-Lafond is urging the Ministry of Children and Families to implement recommendations she’s made in previous reports to improve services for kids in care.
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