Plan for New Placement Options for Children
Francene Cosman, Community Services Minister, said today 56 new beds are being created for children and youth in government care. It's the first step in a plan to improve placement and treatment options in Nova Scotia.
The department's four regional offices have projects under way that will result in new facilities in Dartmouth, Bridgewater and Pictou, and a parent-counsellor program in the Sydney area. It is estimated that at least 56 children and youth will be served.
Some of the projects will be in place as early as fall, 1998.
"Our goal, shared by all our partners, is to keep children and youth as close to home as possible," said Ms. Cosman. "Enhancing placement options in all regions is the logical, and necessary, first step in this plan."
Expanded regional services were recommended in the 1996 report Too Good To Lose, which studied the placement and treatment options available to children and youth who may have behavioural or emotional problems.
At present, services for these children range from foster care to placement in a highly structured treatment facility. Currently, some 27 children are sent out of province for intensive therapy and treatment.
All of the regional services are being developed and offered through partnerships with local children's services agencies.
The Reigh Allen Centre in Dartmouth will provide 20 new residential beds to serve children and youth, ages 12 to 16, with behavioural and emotional disorders. It has been developed by the Association for the Development of Children's Residential Facilities.
A parent-counsellor program in the Sydney area will have an outreach component to serve children and youth. This is a therapeutic foster home program where foster parents are intensely trained and have access to support services. The program will consist of 12 parent-counsellor homes and three respite beds.
Nine new beds will be added to the Pictou Adolescent Assessment Centre, run by the Children's Aid Society of Pictou County. Twelve of the beds in the new 16-bed program will be long-term while the remaining will be for short-term.
In Bridgewater, a highly-structured 10-bed residential treatment facility for troubled youth will be operated by the Family and Children Services of Lunenburg County.
The department is allocating a total of $2. 6 million this year toward the implementation of Too Good To Lose.
"To be truly committed to keeping children close to home, we had to make enhanced regional services the first priority in this system," said Ms. Cosman. "Once these programs are in place, we will continue to work on the other important recommendations of Too Good to Lose."
Completion of the regional placement services will allow the department to proceed with development of a facility within Nova Scotia for the most intensive treatment and complex placements, known as secure treatment.
The secure treatment program, which a facility is one part of, requires that children must have options to move back to their home community once treatment is concluded. This treatment facility will not be a youth correctional facility.
The department is still considering modifying the former residential centre in Truro as the secure treatment facility, pending analysis of the suitability and feasibility of renovating the building. However, a secure treatment program is not slated to start this fiscal year.
"Secure treatment is an essential component of the services needed for certain children in the province," said Ms. Cosman. "However, Too Good To Lose has said that a secure treatment model should not exist without an appropriate range of resources in any region. The department is following that advice."