Paper
Offering a life project to children: an approach that is increasingly anchored in the practices of youth protection in Quebec
- issue: Issue 2 / 2009
- authors: Esther Montambault, Denis Trudelle, Jean-Luc Gosselin
- keywords: youth protection, Canada
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- downloaded: 0
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abstract
Background. We present the findings of a research project done in the Québec Youth protection centers or "Centres jeunesse" in the year 2006. This particular research draws its purpose from the essence of the new youth protection Quebec law, sustaining that all decisions made about children at high risk of abandonment, should primarily take into account their need for stability and attachment. As such, when a situation makes us foresee a possible or present "rupture" of the continuity of these bonds, probable or effective, the mandate of the intervener is to clarify and elaborate a long term "life project" for the child. By their interventions, they must clarify the intentions, the capacities and the parent's desire of involvement regarding their child. That being said, it must be done as rapidly as possible in order to plan the ways in which the parents will be involved or not in the "Life project" of their child. Elaborating a "life project" is therefore a process of intervention that seeks the parent's involvement in a process of clarification, where different options for the child will be analyzed such as: (1) maintaining or returning a child in his natural environment; (2) directing the child toward a new setting by adoption or new filiations in order to develop his or her attachment, (3) the decision to entrust custody to a member of the family, (4) the decision to maintain the child on a long term basis in a foster family. The objective of this process is always to reach, at the end of more or less one year (depending on the child's age and state of danger), a permanent and stable life setting while being able to respond to all the child's needs. This clinical orientation called "the life project" is based on the objective of ending the ambivalence and the affective lacks the child may have.
Purpose. This research was performed in two Québec Youth Protection Centers (Centres jeunesse). All children for which a "life plan" court order was in effect as of November 20th in 2006, were designated as subjects for this study which aimed at better understanding the clinical process that leads to the structuring of life plans. From all the data drawn from the two Centres jeunesse, we were able to focus on the clinical trajectory of those children for which a life plan had been mandated by court order on November20th 2006, and compare it with the rest of the youth population of those "Centres jeunesse" which represented a total of 4,289 children. The present findings are derived from data extracts of the PIBE which translates as the Quebec database on children wellbeing. This particular database gathers information from all children and families which were reported and evaluated by the Quebec youth protection. The main focus of the research lies in the following questions: What is the profile of the children and families concerned by the life plan clinical process? What is roadmap of those families within the youth protection services? Are the services offered coherent with the goal of stability aimed for those children? What are the specific characteristics of those children when compared to the entire population of youth under the care of the youth protection?
Key finding. The clarification process and life plan structuring targets the right of children to be part of a family and to be guaranteed stability in their significant relationships. This clinical process, despite its present marginal situation, lies within the judicial boundaries which could possibly create, in a nearby future, an increasing number of long term placements or adoptions. Since 2006, this shift of approach has brought numerous reactions and opinions, some of which fear that adoption should become the single privileged option to ensure the stability of those children and moreover be implemented without ensuring that these families receive all the help they require in order to regain balance.
These research results will allow clinical professionals and administrators to better understand who these youngsters are, for which a life plan is foreseen. It will enable them to better comprehend the intervention motives in these particular situations; what the realm of clinical activities performed with these families is, within a time framed intervention; or how many clinical professionals the children see, etc. All this with the purpose to study this specific practice and draw its principal clinical challenges.
Hence, we can already confirm that out of a population of 4,289 youngsters under the care of the youth protection, a total of 133 individuals underwent legal procedures resulting in a life plan project. However these first results do not differentiate between child genders. Of these children, 40, 6% are between 0 and 5 years old; 33, 1% between 6 to 12 years old and 26, 3% are between 13 and 18 years old. The primary reason for intervention is due to parental negligence (58%), which is closely linked in 20% of the cases to a parental drug abuse problem.
Key references
Centre jeunesse de Montréal, (2001). Programme Banque-Mixte, http://www.mtl.
centresjeunesse.qc.ca/services/adoption/banque_mixte.ht).
Montambault, E. (2001). La décision de placement d'enfants : le cheminement décisionnel et l'influence de facteurs attribuables aux intervenants décideurs. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, École de service social, Québec, Université Laval.
Rapport du Comité d'experts sur la révision de la loi sur la protection de la jeunesse 2004. La protection des enfants au Québec : une responsabilité à mieux partager, (www.msss.gouv.ca).
Contacts: Esther Montambault, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada, 2500 boul. Université, Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada, J1K 2R1, E-mail: Esther.Montambault@Usherbrooke.ca, Phone 819 821-8000