Aboriginal, Saskatchewan children exceed national child welfare numbers
Aboriginal children make up a quarter of Saskatchewan’s child population, but they account for 80 per cent of the children within the child welfare system.
This is one of the key findings from a new report called Kiskisik Awasisak: Remember the Children, Understanding the Overrepresentation of First Nations Children in the Child Welfare System.
The report on Aboriginal children is part of the overall Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse 2008. It was put together from data in 2008 by a team from universities across the country and follows up similar reports using data from 2003 and 1998.
This month, in Saskatoon, one of the research team members, Dr. Vandna Sinha, assistant professor from McGill University’s Centre for Research for Children and Families, outlined the report’s findings concerning the characteristics of children and caregivers, of households, of cases and forms of maltreatment.
“Neglect is the primary category of maltreatment in 46 per cent of investigations,” Sinha said.
Exposure to intimate partner violence, at 33 per cent, is the next biggest category while at the other end is actual abuse. However, Sinha did point out that the data was gathered from new cases reported during a three-month period in 2008 and covers only what was reported during the early stages of a case.
One of the underlying factors found is a history that includes residential schools and efforts during the 1960s to remove Aboriginal children from homes on the slightest pretext known as the “Sixties Scoops.”
“Those kinds of historical patterns have intergenerational impacts,” Sinha said.
The team also produced reports for five provinces. Dr. David Rosenbluth, manager of Evaluation and Research for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Social Services, outlined the situation for this province.
Saskatchewan exceeds the national rate for investigations, at 44 per 1,000 children compared with 39.5 per 1,000. A disproportionate number are for very young children as well, under one years of age.
Rosenbluth reiterated Sinha’s statement about the most common reason for investigations. “Over half of our caseload we see is because of neglect,” he said.
One surprising finding, according to Rosenbluth, was the age of caregivers in the caseload. The largest segments were not the youngest parents, which could indicate that programs targeting young parents are having effect. Caregivers between 31 and 40 were the largest group, representing 43 per cent, and those 22 to 30 were second, at 30 per cent.
The Kiskisik Awasisak and broader Canadian reports echo the findings of Saskatchewan’s Child Welfare Review released in late 2010. Rosenbluth made a presentation about the findings from The Saskatchewan Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect 2008 during the review process.
By Mike Chouinard, kidSKAN managing editor. He can be reached at mike.chouinard@usask.ca.
