In a study that has no equivalent in North America, a group of Canadian and American social work researchers counted the files of children processed by the youth protection department (DYP) over a period of 17 years, in order to quantify the absolute “risk” of a child being reported to social services in Quebec. Result: nearly one in five Quebec children is reported to the DPJ, one in ten is taken care of by social services and one in twenty is placed outside of their family environment.
To carry out this study, the researchers took all the DYP files of Quebec children between 2000 and 2017. In this research “matrix”, each child was assigned a unique identifier, in order to prevent the counting of reports. multiple for the same child.
The researchers thus wanted to go beyond the annual findings of youth protection directors who deplore, year after year, an increase in reports in Quebec. As a child can be reported or taken into care several times by social services, these annual reports never manage to provide an overall picture of the situation.
“We did not work with reports, but with children whose identity had been anonymized,” explains lead researcher and professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Montreal, Tonino Esposito. And, unlike other studies, these are real rates, not simulations. »
The results show that more than 18% of Quebec children over the period from 2000 to 2017 were reported to the DPJ. In a second stage, approximately 16% of Quebec children, over this same period, saw their report retained. In the case of one in ten children in Quebec, it was judged, after evaluation, that their safety and development were in question. And finally, in the case of more than 5% of Quebec children over this same period, the facts led to placement outside their home.
And these DPJ interventions occur from the beginning of life, underlines the researcher.
Of all babies born in Quebec over the course of a year, one in 100 will be taken care of by the DPJ from their first year of life, and almost one in 200 will be placed in a substitute environment from their year of birth.
Tonino Esposito, lead author of the study and professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Montreal
A placement, in this study, covers a wide range of situations: the child can be placed away from home for only one day or for years. Furthermore, the study only takes into account placements occurring after a first report – and not those occurring after several reports. The overall placement rate could therefore, in fact, be higher.
The study was published last December in the pages of the International Journal Environmental Research and Public Health. The eight signing researchers come from the University of Montreal, McGill University, the University of Toronto, the University of Manitoba, the University of Michigan and the University Institute on Young People in Trouble .
A similar rate in the United States
Few studies on the subject have been carried out in North America, which could make it possible to compare these social service coverage rates with those of other countries and, therefore, to evaluate Quebec’s performance. In the United States, researchers carried out simulations based on data collected over several years. Result: 12% of children are taken care of by social services and 5.9% are placed.
Except that in the United States, a country where family support and social programs are infinitely less generous than in Quebec, a certain percentage of children are not referred to social services, but rather to organizations or help resources. “There is an over-dependence on youth protection in Quebec,” believes the researcher.
Clearly, too many cases of children end up in the court of the DYP in Quebec. “In the United States, a good number of cases of children never end up in youth protection,” says Mr. Esposito. Here, everything goes through the DPJ. »
The study shows that for half of these cases where the health and safety of the child were judged to be compromised in Quebec, parental neglect was the main risk factor.
These children are not abused or sexually assaulted, they are neglected, that is, their parents do not take care of them or take care of them poorly, to the point that their basic physical and emotional needs are not met. not fulfilled.
Family Services
For Assunta Gallo, director of youth protection at the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, these results are “worrying”, but also enlightening on the path to follow to improve.
Youth protection must once again become an exceptional law. It has become a gateway to services. We must correct the trajectory of the pendulum.
Assunta Gallo, director of youth protection at the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal
More than two years ago, the commission led by Régine Laurent arrived at approximately the same conclusions.
Quebec has undeniable successes to its credit, underlines Tonino Esposito. “At the scale of North America, we can say that Quebec has considerably reduced inequalities. We have the lowest rate of child poverty across Canada. »
We must now target families at risk and act in social intervention as we act with patients suffering from a chronic illness in a hospital, with a concept of pivotal worker, he believes. “The services exist. But we need to think about accessibility. We don’t just direct the family to services, we must ensure that the family receives them. »