Report: Kids in government care continue to fall behind Kids, government, Report, continue, fall

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Report: Kids in government care continue to fall behind
One-in-four have no one in their family to go to
John Ackermann Oct 18, 2010 07:22:39 AM
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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - It's being called a compelling snapshot on the state of children and youth in our province. A first of its kind report called "Growing Up in BC" finds our kids are in serious trouble.

BC's Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel Lafond and Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall found 15 per cent of our children are struggling, while one-in-four say there's no one in their family they can go to with problems.

Foster kids, particularly aboriginals, are more likely to go to bed on empty stomach, more likely not to use a condom, and more likely to use cocaine, crystal meth, and ecstacy.

NDP Children's Critic Maurine Karagianis says she's not that suprised.  "The state in this province for young kids has not been good for the last 10 years.  We have the highest rate of child poverty, we've seen things like mental health programs cut, we've seen cuts to programs that support special needs children."

She wonders if the right people will now get the message.  "This is an important document for the government as well. The children's representative has tabled documents before and the government often choose not to listen to the recommendations."

Recommendations include benchmarks that can be used to measure progress every two years.  The report is being released at the two-day 2010 "Champions for Children and Youth Summit" which gets underway today at the Sheraton Wall Centre downtown.