Coroner’s jury in death of Cree teen calls for reform of services for children in care | 24CA News

WARNING: This story accommodates distressing particulars. 

A coroner’s jury has reached its verdict within the loss of life of a 17-year-old Cree teen in a bunch house in Abbotsford, B.C., recommending extra family-based companies for youngsters in care and quicker motion when these youngsters go lacking.

Traevon Chalifoux-Desjarlais was present in a bed room closet in September 2020, 4 days after he was first reported lacking by a bunch house staffer. Following a coroner’s inquest, his loss of life has been confirmed as a suicide.

Inquest testimony from the teenager’s mom, psychiatrist and guardianship social employee painted an image of a weak younger man who confronted overwhelming challenges in his quick life, together with an mental incapacity. He was taken into authorities care at beginning and was moved plenty of instances, rising up between the houses of assorted relations. 

The verdict from the coroner’s jury consists of 18 suggestions for the Ministry of Children and Family Development, group house operator Rees Family Services, and Indigenous baby welfare supplier Xyolhemeylh, a delegated company of the ministry.

The suggestions embody ensuring lacking youngsters are instantly reported to police, creating insurance policies and funding constructions that might favour family-based residential companies over group houses operated by workers, and growing the variety of certified Indigenous workers working straight with youngsters and their households.

The jury additionally known as for collaboration between the ministry and Indigenous communities to re-assess the residing conditions of kids in care to ensure they’re positioned in protected and culturally acceptable houses, and contracting Indigenous elders to be obtainable in these houses.

The nine-day inquest heard that Chalifoux-Desjarlais stopped taking his treatment within the months earlier than his loss of life, which can have contributed to an increase in self-harming behaviour, together with banging holes in his bed room wall along with his head and chopping up his mattress and sheets. 

COVID-19 restrictions solely made issues worse by limiting the in-person contact he had with numerous care staff personnel.

During the course of the inquest, a bunch house employee testified that he had searched Chalifoux-Desjarlais’s room “multiple times” after reporting him lacking on Sept. 14, 2020. When an Abbotsford police officer discovered the teenager’s physique within the closet, three suicide notes have been found on his bedside desk and flooring. 

A coroner’s inquest doesn’t discover blame or criminality however is supposed to serve the general public curiosity in revealing the details and circumstances of a loss of life. The jury’s suggestions are supposed to deal with enhancements to coverage and procedures.

If you or somebody you realize is struggling, here is the place to get assist:

If you are frightened somebody you realize could also be vulnerable to suicide, it is best to discuss to them about it, says the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention. Here are some warning indicators: 

• Suicidal ideas.
• Substance abuse.
• Purposelessness.
• Anxiety.
• Feeling trapped.
• Hopelessness and helplessness.
• Withdrawal.
• Anger.
• Recklessness.