Overflow units of the DPJ in Mauricie – Centre-du-Québec deemed inadequate have been dismantled, during an investigation by the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (CDPDJ) conducted in recent months.
Posted at 2:22 p.m.
“Significant shortcomings” were noted in these spaces, which are normally intended to accommodate young people under the responsibility of the DPJ. “The ‘bedrooms’ were in fact individual spaces separated by screens and curtains and had little adequate furniture,” revealed the CDPDJ in a press release issued on Wednesday.
After dismantling the overflow units, the establishment “undertook to no longer use them”. In order to accommodate two overflow units in adequate premises, “a wing of the rehabilitation center has been converted”, she continues.
The independent investigation had been going on since February, when “a media watch revealing the state of overcrowding in rehabilitation centers and group homes” sounded the alarm within the CDPDJ.
“Given these corrective measures deemed satisfactory, the Commission no longer has any reason to believe that the rights of young people housed in the overflow units of the CIUSSS de la Mauricie – et-du-Centre-du-Québec are prejudiced”, specifies we in the press release.
Concerns
The recruitment of labor and the shortage of foster families are two major issues in this region, maintains the CDPDJ.
If the “youth/educator ratios” are currently respected, it is due to the hiring of student staff during the summer season. In view of the fall, “the Commission remains concerned about the preservation of this balance”.
Kellie Forand, information officer for the CIUSSS de la Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec (MCQ), assures The Press that the labor problem persists year-round. “It’s just less worse in the summer,” she drops.
The rehabilitation centers of Trois-Rivières and Drummondville, two places that are managed by the CIUSSS of the MCQ, are overwhelmed. “More than 100%” of the available places are occupied, says Kellie Forand.
“We launched a campaign to recruit foster families last April, which has been very successful,” she says.. Since the launch of this campaign, which aimed to promote the role of foster families, 140 applications have been sent to the CIUSSS of the MCQ. Ten new families are accredited.