Of the $8.1 million announced for all of Quebec’s Youth Protection Departments (DYP), the North Shore only gets crumbs, or 2.7% of the new provincial envelope.
The Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, announced that an additional total investment of $8.1 million had been granted to support establishments in the health and social services network in their youth protection actions.
The CISSS de la Côte-Nord has obtained an amount of $166,000 for the year 2023-2024 to strengthen two services offered to young people in difficulty. In 2024-2025, this amount will be split into two grants for a sum of $220,000.
Funding to help better
Initially, these investments will make it possible to add a resource dedicated to coordinating the implementation of the RTS-Proximité service integration project.
According to Pascal Paradis, communications advisor at the CISSS Côte-Nord, “this program will make it possible to involve teams offering local services at the report processing stage in order to optimize referral and management of situations. This should help to reduce the retention of these situations by the Youth Protection Department.”
Still according to Mr. Paradis, the second annual grant will allow “to have a resource dedicated to the coordination of the multisectoral agreement relating to child victims of sexual abuse, physical abuse or serious neglect and to develop and implement of an integrated model in the region.
Annual Review
In June 2023, the annual report showed a slight drop in reports in the region. Despite this decrease, 4,407 reports were made in 2022-2023, which represents 12 children per day.
Nadia Denis, director of youth protection on the North Shore, noted that child abuse remained a worrying social problem.
The neglect rate stands at 32.6% of cases, the highest percentage in the entire province.
Report to help children
Ms. Denis concluded in June that such a high number of reports proves that people continue to report child situations that concern them, which represents good news for their safety.
For the 2022-2023 report, 54.7% of the reports retained concluded, after an evaluation, a compromised security or development decision.
Additionally, 181 youth received services under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, representing an increase of 23% from last year.
At the time of writing these lines, it was not possible to discuss with Ms. Denis to find out whether or not she was satisfied with these new budgetary envelopes for the region.
2023-10-09 19:01:57
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