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]

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

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.

[Ursus]

Here are some other articles from The Chronicle Herald which have already slipped into the pay-per-view category, just in case someone has an account with them:

• Grandmother: Teen insisting he was abused at facility
  The Chronicle-Herald - Metropolitan - 07-22-2010 - 519 words
  Michael Macdonald - Wednesday that the troubled boy has recanted allegations he was abused by staff at a treatment facility in Ontario. The woman, who can't be named to protect the youth's...

• Grandmother: Teen sticking with abuse claim
  The Chronicle-Herald - 07-22-2010 - 347 words
  Michael Macdonald - Wednesday that the troubled boy has recanted allegations he was abused by staff at a treatment facility in Ontario. The woman, who can't be named to protect the youth's...

• Grandmother says she's barred from visiting teen
  The Chronicle-Herald - 07-23-2010 - 190 words
  a Nova Scotia youth who claims he was physically abused by staff at an Ontario treatment facility says officials have barred her from seeing him. The woman, who can't be...

[wdtony]

http://www.thetelegram.com/section/2010 ... -Ontario/1


Grandmother says officials have barred her from seeing troubled teen in Ontario

Published on July 22nd, 2010

 HALIFAX - The grandmother of a Nova Scotia youth who claims he was physically abused by staff at an Ontario treatment facility says officials have barred her from seeing him.

The woman, who can't be named to protect the youth's identity, says the troubled 15-year-old told her that staff at the Bayfield facility in Consecon forced him to the floor, punched him in the ribs and kneeled on his throat.

She says the scuffle Sunday left him with a black eye and cuts on his head.

The grandmother says she asked if she could visit the youth on Friday or Monday, but was told that wasn't possible because an investigation is underway.

Officials with the provincial Community Services Department and the Bayfield facility declined today to comment on the case.

But the director of child welfare for the department has previously said the boy told his social worker that he fabricated the allegations.

The decision to send the boy out of the province was endorsed by Nova Scotia Supreme Court more than a year ago when the province confirmed it had exhausted its treatment and housing options.

The boy suffers from cognitive disorders and has been in the care of the Community Services Department since November 2008, when it was determined he was a threat to himself and the community.

[wdtony]

http://www.canadaeast.com/rss/article/1144137

Grandmother defends N.S. teen alleging abuse at Ontario treatment facility

Published Wednesday July 21st, 2010

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press

HALIFAX - The grandmother of a Nova Scotia youth struggling with behavioural disorders says a provincial official was wrong to suggest Wednesday that the troubled boy has recanted allegations he was abused by staff at a treatment facility in Ontario.

The woman, who can't be named to protect the youth's identity, said the 15-year-old is sticking to his story that two staff members at the Bayfield facility in Consecon threw him to the floor, punched him in the ribs and kneeled on his throat — stopping his breathing for a moment.

She said she spoke with him by phone Tuesday and he repeated he has a black eye, cuts on his head and scratches all over his body.

"He said ... 'they beat me,' " the woman said in an interview, noting that the altercation began at 2 a.m. Sunday when the boy asked to go to the washroom.

"And the next thing you know, bam! Down on the floor and they punched him in the ribs and the kneed him. They slammed him down on the floor. ... He said, 'Mum, it really hurt.' "

She said the boy fought back only to protect himself.

Vicki Wood, director of child welfare with Nova Scotia's Community Services Department, said the boy told his social worker he was wrong to fabricate the allegations he made Sunday.

"He told her that he had not been injured, he did not have a black eye and he's not sure why he said that," she said in an interview.

"When you're working with children who have emotional and behavioural disorders, it's not unusual for them to have episodes where they're ... having difficulty. In those difficulties they may leave a program, they may say things that may encourage someone to come and get them."

Wood confirmed that the department reviews every report of abuse.

The grandmother's voice trembled with emotion when she spoke about the Nova Scotia government's attempts to help the family.

"They have destroyed our family here," she said. "You know what it feels like in this house? Death. We know he's alive, but it feels like death."

She said the teen has complained to her about rough treatment at Bayfield on at least 10 other occasions. As a result, he should be removed until a specialized program can be set up in Nova Scotia, she added.

The accusations have not been proven and officials at Bayfield have declined comment. But documents from Nova Scotia's Justice Department confirm their was a struggle on Sunday and the boy was restrained.

The teen has been in the care of Nova Scotia's Community Services Department since November 2008, when it was determined he was a threat to himself and the community. He suffers from various cognitive challenges, but the grandmother and the family's lawyer insist there has never been a conclusive diagnosis.

"I'm not saying that he doesn't have a disability," the grandmother said. "When the child was in school, he couldn't sit down."

But she dismissed published reports that suggest the boy suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and fetal alcohol syndrome, a disorder that leaves individuals with little ability to control their impulses.

"Nobody knows what's wrong with this child," she said.

Wood said she understands that it's difficult for families whose children are being cared for in another province.

"We make every effort to maintain the ties," she said, noting that the province plans to open a facility similar to Bayfield as early as next year.

But that's not good enough for the boy's grandmother.

"If you don't have family contact, it's not going to work," she said, noting that the family can't afford to travel to Ontario very often. "At least if he was in Nova Scotia, we could visit more."

The boy has been involved in two car thefts and charged with various petty crimes, but his record does not include any violent offences, lawyer Patrick Eagan said in an interview.

The decision to send the boy out of the province was endorsed by Nova Scotia Supreme Court more than a year ago when the province confirmed it had exhausted its options.

The province doesn't have a facility similar to Bayfield, a privately run operation that offers long-term, intensive treatment for boys with conduct disorders, psychiatric disorders and attention deficit disorder.

His story attracted national attention last year when the court decided to send him to a facility in Utah, which is about 3,600 kilometres from the Maritime province. The Utah centre later said the boy could not be admitted.

A Supreme Court ruling published in April said the boy's grandparents lack understanding and acceptance of the adolescent's cognitive deficiencies. As well, the ruling said the grandmother has given the teen reasons to feel justified in disrespecting staff at Bayfield.

On Wednesday, the woman scoffed at those findings.

"They twist things around," she said.

The woman and the boy's grandfather have cared for him since he was a toddler. His mother lost custody of him in British Columbia — though the details remain sketchy — and his father has never been around.

[wdtony]

http://news.sympatico.cbc.ca/local/ns/n ... d/9be07f04

N.S. boy's claim of abuse at care facility probed

04/08/2010 8:42:44 AM

CBC News

A Nova Scotia woman says she welcomes a police investigation into allegations that her grandson is being abused at an Ontario facility for troubled youth.


The grandmother told CBC News on Wednesday she believes the 15-year-old boy is being mistreated at the Bayfield treatment centre in Consecon, just south of Trenton in eastern Ontario.

Ontario Provincial Police confirm they are investigating.

"I hope they get to this, that this is really happening there with this child, because something is going to happen if they don't get that child out of there," said the grandmother, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the boy.

"If he was here and I was abusing him and putting marks on him I would be locked out. He would be removed from my home."

She said her grandson was cut, bruised and jabbed in the ribs during a struggle with staff who were trying to restrain him. She said he had no choice but to defend himself.

"Three on to you, beating you? I mean, you're going to try to struggle or run. And he stood there and fought back. But he got the worst of it," she said.

She said it happened when he tried to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

The boy is in the permanent care of the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services. He suffers from mental disorders and has been in conflict with the law. Last year, he was sent to the Bayfield facility because Nova Scotia doesn't have the kind of treatment program he needs.

Sgt. Kristine Rae, a police spokeswoman, said Tuesday that investigators are looking into a complaint at Bayfield, but she couldn't give details.

The grandmother said she gave a videotaped interview to Cole Harbour RCMP and provided audiotapes of her grandson discussing the abuse allegations with her.

She said she told RCMP that she believes her grandson's account.

The Department of Community Services is aware of the police investigation but wouldn't say whether its own investigation has concluded.

"We take all allegations of abuse seriously, and we encourage the authorities to investigate them," said a department spokesperson.

[wdtony]

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1197843.html

Grandparents cut off from troubled teen

Family contact’s become an obstacle, Ontario treatment facility claims

By EVA HOARE Staff Reporter
Fri, Aug 20 (2010) - 4:53 AM

The grandparents of a troubled Nova Scotia teenager under treatment at a facility in Ontario say they’re outraged that the centre has cut them off completely from him.

"Know what it feels like? It feels like (a) death," the 15-year-old’s grandmother said in an interview Thursday evening from her home in Cole Harbour. "They want to keep him from family."

The grandparents learned of the decision to halt all communication between them and their grandson in a letter sent to their home Thursday.

"Family contact has become an obstacle to providing (the teen) with the treatment he requires in a highly structured residential facility," said the letter from the Nova Scotia Community Services Department.

The letter, signed by two caseworkers from the Dartmouth office of Community Services, says the decision was based on the recommendation of Bayfield Homes in Consecon, Ont., where the boy now lives.

Neither the boy nor his grandparents can be named in order to protect his identity because of his age.

The grandparents have raised the boy for most of his life, but more than a year ago Community Services placed him in care.

The teen has a history of running away from home and from care facilities and for engaging in risky behaviour such as sex with adult men and women, court has previously heard. He also once went joyriding in a stolen car that struck a pole.

He has been diagnosed with cognitive limitations, fetal alcohol syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant behaviour.

Nova Scotia does not have a treatment facility that is equipped to deal with the boy’s condition. The boy’s grandmother says the decision to stop her and her husband from phoning the teen is payback because they launched a criminal complaint with police alleging the boy has been abused at the Ontario centre.

"We feel it’s a vendetta because we went to the media because the child got restrained and hurt there," she said. "They wanted us to keep it a secret."

Early this month, Ontario police confirmed they were investigating allegations that staff at the Bayfield home had abused the boy, The Canadian Press reported. She said Thursday she is worried about how the lack of contact with family will affect her grandson.

"I believe he knows," she said of the no-contact order. "We were expecting a call this evening but we didn’t get that."

In their letter, the caseworkers say they will make an application to change the court order in place regarding access to the teen.

"You try to work with them," the boy’s grandfather said. "They don’t want to work with you. I don’t know . . . I really don’t know."

"They’re going to take us back to court," the grandmother said. "We’re not giving up."

[ajax13]

Where have we seen this before:
"Sanders, L. Attachment of Adolescent Males in a Residential Treatment Setting, UMI Publication, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2003.  
Sanders, L. & Jamieson, J. Predictors of Academic Achievement for At Risk Adolescent Males in a Residential Treatment Centre, 2004.
Sanders, L., Committee Chair,  Ontario Association for Treating Youth, Partners in Care- 1,2and 3:
Sanders, L. & Fulton, R. Educational Achievement and Attachment, The Bayfield School Outcome Study, 2006."
To obtain copies of the research projects contact Larry S. Sanders, Ph.D., Chairman/CEO, Bayfield http://www.bayfield.net/Research.html

Another asshole running an experimental project with captive adolescents.

[wdtony]

Video about residential treatment, Dr. Charles Emmrys:

http://www.vimeo.com/14364283

[wdtony]

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/9017638.html

Troubled teen to be released from Ontario facility

Family not told where grandson will go

By The Canadian Press
Tue, Aug 24 (2010) - 2:26 PM

The family of a troubled Nova Scotia teen being treated for behavioural disorders at a facility in Ontario says he is being discharged Wednesday and they aren't being told where he's going.

The family, who can't be named to protect the youth's identity, says their contact with him has been suspended.

Nova Scotia's Department of Community Services sent a letter to his grandmother last week notifying her that access would be denied because the family had become an obstacle to providing the boy with the treatment he needs.

Roch Longueepee, who leads an advocacy group working with the family to bring the teen home, says they plan to challenge the access ban.

The 15-year-old has alleged he was abused at an Ontario treatment facility, a claim that is under police investigation.

[wdtony]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... le1683654/


N.S. family says it's not being told where troubled teen will be held

Boy claims he was abused at Ontario facility; family plans to challenge access ban

The Canadian Press
Published on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010 2:47PM EDT
 

The family of a troubled Nova Scotia teen being treated for behavioural disorders at a facility in Ontario says he is being discharged Wednesday and they aren't being told where he's going.

The family, who can't be named to protect the youth's identity, produced a letter from Nova Scotia's Department of Community Services on Tuesday that said their contact with the boy had been suspended on the recommendation of the facility where he is housed.

The department sent the letter to his grandmother last week arguing that family contact had become an obstacle to the youth's treatment.

Roch Longueepee, who leads an advocacy group working with the family to bring the teen home, said they plan to challenge the access ban.

“I think what's happening here is that the government has its tail between its legs and this is just a desperate ploy to get rid of the key players,” he said.

He said the family will go to court Friday to argue that they have a right to know where the boy will be transferred.

The 15-year-old has alleged he was abused at an Ontario facility, a claim that is under police investigation.

He has been in the care of the government of Nova Scotia since November 2008, when it was determined he was a threat to himself and the community.

He suffers from various cognitive challenges, but his grandmother and the family's lawyer say there has never been a conclusive diagnosis.

Nova Scotia does not have a facility capable of addressing the boy's needs and the province's Supreme Court agreed last year that he could be sent away because all local treatment options had been exhausted.

Mr. Longueepee said that they have assembled a team of health care professionals willing to help the boy if he were brought home and placed in some sort of foster care.

He said the Nova Scotia government remains unwilling to compromise even though, after more than a year in Ontario, the boy's program does not appear to have worked.

“It's their way or the highway and the family resists what is going on because they are concerned for the welfare and safety of the boy and I think that's a legitimate concern.”

The boy has been in the care of his grandparents since he was a toddler.

[wdtony]

http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/comment ... -s-dignity


Restoring a Nova Scotia boy's dignity

Urban Compass by Stephen Kimber
METRO HALIFAX
Published: August 23, 2010 9:00 a.m.

Nova Scotia’s Community Services Department has upped the ante: Last week it severed family access to a troubled Cole Harbour teenager it had shipped off to an Ontario residential care facility last year.

It will now apply to family court “to vary the current order with respect to access,” thus legalizing the elimination of the boys’ grandparents from any future role in his care.


Why?


According to an Aug. 19 letter to the grandparents from the department, the Ontario facility — Bayfield Homes — believes “family contact has become an obstacle to providing (the boy) with the treatment he requires in a highly structured residential facility.”


Really?


Could it be that family contact is an obstacle to the people who run that institution, and who profess to know best what is in the child’s now and future best interests?


Let’s recap.


The grandparents, who had raised the boy since he was a toddler and acknowledged he needed help they couldn’t provide, objected — in public — to the province’s plan to send him out of province for treatment.


They went to court in a lengthy but ultimately unsuccessful bid to bring him home.


They enlisted the aid of a New Brunswick child psychologist and other experts who came up with an alternative plan of care that would have seen the boy returned to Nova Scotia and cared for in a community setting.


Two weeks ago, the government turned down their plan.


Last spring, Restoring Dignity, a group advocating for victims of institutional abuse, took up the family’s cause, bringing allegations of mistreatment at Bayfield to the attention of various authorities in Ontario, including the province’s child advocate.


On July 19, the group organized a press conference to outline allegations the boy had been beaten for asking to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Ontario Provincial Police are investigating.


No wonder Bayfield isn’t happy.


The boy’s grandmother, admittedly, can be difficult. She’s relentless, even obsessive, about what she considers the best interests of her grandson.


Is that so bad? In three years, when the boy turns 18 and Bayfield washes its hands of him, who will be left to look out for his best interests?