Senior members of the Children’s Health Policy Centre (CHPC) team addressed the BC provincial government Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth on Dec. 5/22. This talk was given in collaboration with Jennifer Charlesworth, the BC Representative for Children and Youth.

The topic? How to reduce the number of children needing to come into government care while improving mental health outcomes for those who do.

Christine Schwartz, Simon Fraser University Adjunct Professor, and Charlotte Waddell, CHPC director, were the spokespeople. They shared key findings, including that parents who are at-risk for maltreating their children can be kept out of the government care system with effective interventions, such as the Nurse-Family Partnership program.

“BC policymakers need to be acknowledged for the substantial investments they’ve already made in keeping children with their parents by offering the Nurse-Family Partnership,” said Schwartz. “The program has proven success in supporting children and families.”

Schwartz also spoke about the mental health burdens experienced by children in care. She noted, “As a practicing psychologist, I’ve seen the connection between the trauma children in government care have experienced and the mental health burdens they still carry.”

Still, CHPC team stressed how children who end up in care can have their health needs met with well-proven prevention and treatment interventions such as cognitive-behavioural therapy for anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.