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British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond in Vancouver.Darryl Dyck/ The Canadian Press

An expanded picture of how many British Columbia children and teenagers are critically injured while under government care may be emerging as a result of new guidelines implemented after a girl with Down syndrome spent a week alone with her mother's decomposing body.

A report released Thursday notes that the number of critical injury reports has tripled since the provincial children's watchdog blasted the children's ministry last year for failing to report the girl's case to her office.

"We're certainly learning of things that we didn't know about," said John Greschner, the chief investigator with the Representative for Children and Youth.

"In due course, if these patterns hold, then that will change our concept of what is happening in the system, and what's happening with these kids and youth."

The 15-year-old involved in the case last year was known to the ministry.

Neighbours grew concerned and finally broke into the family's Fraser Valley mobile home, where they found her filthy and emaciated. On the floor beside the body they saw evidence the girl tried to feed her mother, unaware that she was dead.

It wasn't until the girl's brother went to the media months later that her plight became public.

The case prompted children's watchdog Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond to request the government broaden its criteria for alerting her office to injuries to youth.

The interim changes took effect in March.

In the quarterly report released Thursday, Ms. Turpel-Lafond said 123 critical injuries were reported to her office between Feb. 1 and May 31, compared to 41 in the previous quarter.

A total of 628 cases have been forwarded since reporting began in June 2007.

Mr. Greschner said it's too early to analyze what the increase means, or whether it's cause for concern.

"We need to see whether that pattern holds - I expect it will - but I like to have the evidence before I make statements," he said, adding he believes the watchdog is now receiving the full quantity of data it should.

He couldn't give a detailed list of what kinds of injuries were reported in the last quarter that hadn't reached the office before, but said it included "a number of assaults and sexual assaults."

He noted it's likely the children's ministry was already aware of the incidents now being reported to the watchdog. They may have been recorded under another category that didn't meet the previous criteria for informing the child's representative.

"I'm pretty confident that we're on the right track here, we continue to work collaboratively with the ministry," he said. "They're developing and improving their system internally, which directly provides us with more information."

In her December report, Ms. Turpel-Lafond gave two examples of real cases that wouldn't have been reported under the "outdated" policy in place last year, which she described as "too narrow and technical to be practical." Both cases involved youngsters who were sexually abused.

Children's Minister Mary McNeil said the province agreed the policy needed examination, which is why her ministry is still working with the representative's office to develop an "acceptable definition of emotional harm."

The ministry has expanded the reporting criteria in the meantime to reach beyond strictly physical injuries, she said.

"Our top priority as a ministry is in ensuring that the number of actual critical injuries declines, and that when a critical injury happens, it's responded to as quickly and as effectively as possible," Ms. McNeil said in an e-mail statement.

She said the final reporting system should be complete by the fall.

The latest report also notes the number of deaths of children involved with the ministry dropped to 23 from 35 in the same period, but Mr. Greschner said at this point the figure doesn't appear to be statistically significant.

The influx of reporting has increased the watchdog's workload, Mr. Greschner added. He said the organization, which is funded by the province, recently hired new staff members but they were brought on board to handle excess work even before the spike in reports started coming in.

"It will take a while to really be able to assess the impact of this, but I'm sure there will be an impact," he said.

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