The suicide deaths of four young Indigenous teens in Maskwacis have been examined in a public fatality report, dated between 2017 and 2020.
The inquiry, led by Judge Danielle Dalton in October 2022, had 44 recommendations that stemmed from the case.
The recommendations, if followed, could possibly alter how the province’s child welfare system determines when a minor is in need of intervention, ascertain additional mental health supports for First Nations children in crisis and implement new programs to examine the death toll.
The findings were released earlier this month, and Dalton is making recommendations pointing to dismantling barriers to care while asserting previous calls to address the high number of Indigenous children dying in care.
In her report the judge detailed the tragic lives of all four victims before they took their own lives. Their trauma included dealing with the deaths of family members and friends, child and family services intervention and prior suicide attempts.
The report calls attention to a notable roadblock in the provincial child welfare system: the requirement that a child must be determined to be “in need of intervention” for services to be assigned. The legal starting point often forces caregivers to acknowlege “unwillingness or inability” to care for the child before intervention services can be put into place.
Identified in the report by only their initials, the teens, aged 15 to 19, had all come into contact with the child welfare system but none were in care at the time of their deaths.
The judge concluded by saying her report “does not purport in any way to be a comprehensive review of, or response to, Indigenous youth suicide, but it is hoped that the recommendations that flow from these stories of these four youth are part of the solution.”
“And youth must be cherished as the gifts they are.”
Comments