Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > News Items
Police probe abuse complaint
wdtony:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1195194.html
Police probe abuse complaint
N.S. boy, 15, suffered black eye, cuts and scratches at facility for troubled youth in Ontario, family alleges
By The Canadian Press
Wed, Aug 4, 2010- 4:53 AM[/b]
Police in Ontario are looking into allegations that a young boy was abused by staff at a home for troubled youth.
Sgt. Kristine Rae, a spokeswoman for the Ontario Provincial Police, said Tuesday that they are investigating the case of a 15-year-old boy from Nova Scotia who is living at the Bayfield treatment facility in Consecon, Ont.
Rae couldn’t provide any details of the case, saying only that they are looking into a complaint at the privately run operation.
The boy’s grandmother, who cannot be named to protect the youth’s identity, said he told her two staff members threw him to the floor, punched him in the ribs and kneeled on his throat late last month.
His grandmother said he suffered a black eye, cuts on his head and scratches all over his body.
She said RCMP, on behalf of the OPP, took a videotaped statement from her and her husband last week, asking what their grandson had told them about the alleged incident.
She said they listened to audio recordings the woman had of her conversations with the teenager.
"They asked if we feel he was telling the truth," she said. "I said, ‘Yes.’ "
Still, she’s not optimistic it will produce results.
"We don’t think there’s anythings going to come of it," the boy’s grandmother said.
The boy was sent more than a year ago to the operation that offers long-term, intensive treatment for boys with conduct disorders because Nova Scotia does not have a similar facility. The decision was endorsed by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
wdtony:
This was the first article:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1192815.html
N.S. teen abused at facility, say advocates
By MICHAEL MacDONALD The Canadian Press
Tue, Jul 20 - 4:52, 2010 AM
An advocacy group is calling for an investigation into allegations that a Nova Scotia youth struggling with a conduct disorder was physically abused on the weekend by staff at a treatment facility in eastern Ontario.
Roch Longueepee, founder of Restoring Dignity, a non-profit group that seeks justice for victims of institutional child abuse, said Monday that the 15-year-old should be removed from the Bayfield facility in Consecon until a specialized treatment program can be set up for him in Nova Scotia.
Longueepee said the youth, who can’t be named, told his aunt that two male staff members refused his request to go to the washroom on Sunday, then threw him to the floor, punched him in the ribs and kneed him in the throat.
The aunt issued a statement saying he was left with a black eye, cuts to his head and scratches on his body.
"We have to react and respond to this boy’s cry for help," Longueepee told a news conference. "We are concerned that the situation is out of control . . . I am concerned that this boy is in danger."
The accusations have not been proven. Sharlene Weitzman, chief operating officer for the privately run facility, declined comment citing privacy concerns.
However, Longueepee released a copy of a Justice Department document that shows the province received a call from Bayfield on Sunday at 4:25 a.m., stating that the youth had been allegedly inciting others to attack staff before punching and kicking at some of them.
The document, produced by the Provincial Emergency Duty Program, says the boy was "placed in a position of control." No other details were provided.
Court documents show the boy has been receiving government help since he was four years old, having been in the care of foster homes, group homes and other programs for years.
He has been in the care of Nova Scotia’s Community Services Department since November 2008, when it was deemed he required intensive, long-term care because he was a risk to himself and the community.
Longueepee said the boy is a sexual abuse victim who was abandoned by his parents before he was five.
As well, he said the boy has "cognitive issues," but none of the diagnoses he has received are conclusive.
Last summer, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court approved the department’s plan to send him to the Bayfield facility near Trenton, Ont., because the province had exhausted its options.
"It was evident that none of those services had achieved the goal of preventing the situation then faced by the minister and the adolescent’s grandparents," Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Beryl MacDonald wrote in a decision released in April.
MacDonald said the adolescent was "totally out of control," would not obey instruction and "presented as a risk to himself and to his community."
The judge also noted that the province had to send the boy outside the province because it does not have a secure, residential facility that can provide long-term, intensive treatment.
At first, the court agreed to send the youth to a facility in Utah, but that fell through and Bayfield was recommended.
Vicki Wood, the department’s director of child welfare, also declined to comment on the allegations.
"I have no knowledge that a child was punched in the ribs or kneed in the throat," she said.
Wood said the department would investigate any allegations of abuse, noting that under an interprovincial protocol, the Ontario facility is expected to follow Nova Scotia rules pertaining to the use of physical restraint of youths who put themselves or others in danger.
"They would never restrain a child for punitive reasons," she said. "It’s to intervene in a situation of danger."
Wood confirmed that the department and the boy’s family can’t agree on the treatment he should receive.
"There’s a forum for the family to bring forward their concerns — that would be the court, not a press conference," Wood said. "The judge is going to make a decision based on information presented to the court, not a third-party organization such as Mr. Longueepee’s, which has no real knowledge of the case."
Longueepee later took exception to Wood's comments, saying it's ``false, absolutely false'' that he has no knowledge of the case.
``I have the entire collection of files from the courts,'' he said, adding he's also interviewed the boy.
The boy's grandparents, who have been caring for him for most of his life, approached the advocacy group in March after they learned of the boy's complaints at Bayfield.
Longueepee said his organization has received complaints of abuse from former residents of Bayfield and their families.
He said the problem is that provinces like Ontario and Nova Scotia continue to cling to the belief that the best place for troubled teens is in an institution.
``These institutions can't be the parents for these children,'' he said.
His group is proposing a specialized foster care program that would cost the province about $175,000 to set up in the first year.
The plan has been submitted to the provincial government, but it has yet to respond, he said.
wdtony:
Another previous article:
http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/comment ... n-this-one
Community services dropped the ball on this one
Urban Compass by Stephen Kimber
FOR METRO HALIFAX
Published: July 26, 2010 9:00 a.m.
Last modified: July 25, 2010 6:29 p.m.
Forget duelling interviews, competing psychologists, contradictory studies, even the difference between physically assaulted and “placed in a position of control.”
Ask yourself one question: Is the 15-year-old Cole Harbour boy at the centre of the controversy over his care better off now than when community services shipped him off to Ontario 13 months ago?
A quick recap: The boy, who suffers from a psychiatrist’s brew of disorders, had been raised by his grandparents since he was a toddler. By November 2008, his acting out — running away, stealing cars, doing drugs, selling his body — was so out of control his grandparents agreed to put him in the care of community services.
Instead of treating him here, the province decided he needed secure, long-term facilities it couldn’t provide. Last June, it shipped him off to Ontario’s Bayfield centre.
Is he better off?
According to his grandmother, he’s on heavy doses of drugs, some self-administered (she says Bayfield wants to add lithium to his medical cocktail), he rarely attends classes, and he has been what the reports call “restrained” on at least 10 occasions. Once, he ended up at the hospital. More recently, he claims he was beaten for asking to go to the washroom.
To complicate matters, Bayfield has done its best to cut the boy off from his grandparents, refusing some face-to-face visits, limiting phone calls to two, monitored 15-minute conversations a week and even, at one point, imposing a total contact blackout because the grandmother was “negative” on the phone. How? In one report I saw, the monitor complained she “asked about his medication again, and was more assertive that she did not believe he should just be taking medication whenever he wanted.”
Last week, Vicki Wood, Nova Scotia’s director of child welfare, claimed “we make every effort to maintain the ties” between child and family. Really?
Wood also said: “There’s a forum for the family to bring forward their concerns. That would be the court, not a press conference.”
The problem is Nova Scotia’s family court seems like an extension of community services. Community services doesn’t appear willing to consider alternatives to out-of-province institutional treatment.
The boy is not better off.
Ursus:
First, at the risk of sounding too particular, can I ask whether all of your articles are from this year? No year was provided with the date for the first two. This can end up being more important as time goes on...
Second, is this the same kid from Nova Scotia who almost got sent to Cinnamon Hills last year? He would be about the same age. I recall that he was also raised by his grandparents, and ended up getting sent to Bayfield instead. More on that case, as well as some commentary on Bayfield, here:
* Canadian Teen saved from Utah facilities · viewtopic.php?f=22&t=28116
wdtony:
--- Quote from: "Ursus" ---First, at the risk of sounding too particular, can I ask whether all of your articles are from this year? No year was provided with the date for the first two. This can end up being more important as time goes on...
Second, is this the same kid from Nova Scotia who almost got sent to Cinnamon Hills last year? He would be about the same age. I recall that he was also raised by his grandparents, and ended up getting sent to Bayfield instead. More on that case, as well as some commentary on Bayfield, here:
* Canadian Teen saved from Utah facilities · viewtopic.php?f=22&t=28116
--- End quote ---
Thank you Ursus, good catch on the dates. Yes, they are all from this year, I have edited them. I was in a hurry to put them up here because they disappear from the net so quickly sometimes. One is already hidden from public view.
I would guess that you are correct about this being the same boy that was almost sent to Cinnamon Hills. I have no proof of this though. From what I have heard it was a choice between Provo Canyon and Cinnamon Hills, so I would believe this is the same boy. I appreciate the link.
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