You might’ve thought that, after years of investigating the most heart-breaking incidents involving society’s most vulnerable, British Columbia’s children’s advocate would have built up a protective coating to prevent her from being emotionally walloped by the cases she handles. It appears it doesn’t work that way.
That was confirmed this week when Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond issued her latest report, this one looking into the circumstances around a 15-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was found in her family’s mobile home in the Fraser Valley last September beside the decomposing body of her mother.
The investigation was branded with the disgust and indignation at provincial child welfare authorities that has become a trademark of Ms. Turpel-Lafond’s inquiries.
“This one was particularly tough for me imagining the torment of this girl with the decomposing body of her mother,” B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth said in an interview. “I mean, the whole scene of her trying to take boxes of macaroni and cheese and medication to her dead mother, and the flies buzzing around and her not eating herself. She will be haunted by this event for a long, long time.”
Ms. Turpel-Lafond often deals with cases of infant death caused by neglect. Even though the child in this instance didn’t die, she decided to look into the matter because she felt the girl suffered a serious injury – which also gives her grounds to investigate.
Beyond the deep psychological harm the girl suffered as a result of being left alone with her dead mother for more than a week, she was also found to be emaciated beyond description. Were it not for the intervention of worried neighbours who looked through the window of the family’s home, the girl would certainly have died of starvation.
The back story is as sad as they come.
The mother was in her 40s when her daughter was born with severe problems. The father wanted no part of the child and would later commit suicide in the United States. The mother struggled to survive financially amid growing health issues, including diabetes. She became an alcoholic, and spent her government assistance cheques on booze.
Well-meaning social workers checked in regularly with the mother and child. Things often seemed fine on the surface. But they weren’t. Reports of abuse and neglect were looked into but never thoroughly enough. In all, there were six child protection investigations that went nowhere.
“So there are people coming to see the family, but it’s all very passive,” Ms. Turpel-Lafond said. “There was an assumption, ‘Oh, you have a mom, you have a home, you’re fine.’ But they weren’t. A special needs worker sees they have barely enough food so brings them a Christmas-in-July food hamper. The day after, the child protection worker comes out and sees lots of food in the fridge and assumes all is okay on that front.
“But no one was looking at the child’s needs. She needed physiotherapy, she needed hearing aids. She wasn’t going to school regularly and, when she did show up, she slept all day. She was invisible.”
In many ways, Ms. Turpel-Lafond’s report is a chronicle of the chaos and confusion that seem to reign in the Ministry of Children and Family Development – a department that has seen a revolving door of ministers and policy changes. Consequently, the social workers Ms. Turpel-Lafond interviewed confessed to not really knowing what their job was.
Underpinning everything, of course, is the ministry’s latest mantra: Don’t remove the child from the home. So they don’t. In this case, supervision of the family consisted of no supervision.
The ministry says it’s committed to implementing the changes recommended by the children’s representative, including developing a broader strategy for dealing with children with special needs. We’ll see. We’ve heard that before from government.
Our girl with Down syndrome, meanwhile, is reported to be doing well in a foster home. She’s finally getting the care she needs. But she still gets frightened at the sight of flies.
