Canada Fatality Inquiry in 2009 Foster Child Death Case Released/Lawsuit

“A provincial court judge has recommended medical training for foster parents and greater funding for First Nations foster care in response to a 13-month-old child’s death of pneumonia.

The girl, identified as K, would not have died if her foster parents had greater medical knowledge, Judge Bart Rosborough concluded in a fatality inquiry report released Thursday. The foster family thought K had a cold or the flu in the days before she died in her bed on the Samson Cree Nation at Hobbema in March 2009.

“Medical staff called at this inquiry consistently testified that an ordinary reasonable caregiver with average education would have sought medical intervention for a child with symptoms of pneumonia serious enough to have caused K’s death,” the judge wrote.

On Thursday, the child’s biological mother said her daughter clearly needed medical treatment before she died. She visited the child three days before and noticed her coughing enough to warrant a trip to the doctor.

“They should have done that,” said the mother, who cannot be identified under Alberta child welfare legislation. “It’s all their fault. It is their wrongdoing.”

She said she would have taken the child to hospital herself after her brief visit, but was not allowed. Instead she wrote a note to the foster mother, asking her to take the child to the doctor. That request was ignored.

“I knew something was wrong. Mother knows best,” she said in a phone interview. “I didn’t want to get into trouble, but I should have taken her to see a doctor.”

After going to a hockey game with foster family members the evening of her death, the child died in her sleep.

Human Services Minister Dave Hancock said he will examine the possibility of medical training for foster parents.

“Absolutely. Children in foster care come with special needs, every child come with their own requirements,” Hancock said, adding that certification processes for foster parents can always be expanded. “How does health care fit into that training module?”

The baby was under the care of Kasohkowew Child Wellness Society in the last three months of her life. The society, established in 1997 under Alberta’s Child Welfare Act, handles the on-reserve foster-care system for the Samson Cree.

She was voluntarily given up by her biological parents, whose lives were dominated by violence and addictions issues.

The foster parents who accepted the girl had previously cared for other children and had a second foster child in the home at the time of the girl’s death. The foster mother was a Kasohkowew society employee.

The foster parents were not told the girl had been admitted to hospital 10 times or that she suffered from asthma and respiratory problems. The child was not given a medical checkup within 48 hours of the new foster placement, as policy dictates.

Rosborough said the Kasohkowew society’s actions “at the very least provided the opportunity for a serious ailment like pneumonia to go untreated.”

Carolyn Peacock, director of the Kasohkowew Child Wellness Society, refused to comment on the report Thursday.

The Kasohkowew society is one of the busiest foster care groups in the province, with 322 permanent guardianship orders.

Kasohkowew’s authority was temporarily revoked in 2002 after a string of child deaths. A review showed staff were badly overworked. Rosborough’s report stated they are still overworked and plagued by high staff turnover.

At the time of their deaths, all the children were in Kasohkowew’s care or known to its staff. Two died in fires, one drowned in the bathtub, another died from head injuries inflicted by a foster parent, one died from a cough-syrup overdose, another by choking on a balloon, and a teenage girl hanged herself.

Hancock said the Alberta government is helping the society through mentorship, but is not interested in making adversarial demands of Kasohkowew. “We have a very good working relationship with Kasohkowew. We have staff working with them as mentors even as we speak.”

Though not the focus of the inquiry, the judge also noted problems with the society’s funding.

“It would appear that there is a significant disparity in the level of funding provided for children ‘off reserve’ as opposed to those ‘on reserve,’ ” Rosborough wrote. “An archaic funding arrangement with the latter results in considerably fewer resources made available to them. This applies to children of the Samson Cree Nation.”

While the Alberta government delegates authority to the Kasohkowew society, they do not provide funding. On-reserve foster care systems are entirely funded by the federal government, Hancock said, while all others are supported by provincial dollars.

The inquiry also heard testimony about the society’s spending practices, including funds diverted to pay for staff members to go to an out-of-country educational seminar that at least one staff member refused to attend because of the cost. Money was also used for ‘cultural activities’ that were so expensive that caseworkers had to be fired to bring the budget under control.

“Inadequate resourcing of KCWS has been suggested as a factor contributing to the tragic death of K and, to the extent that funds were inappropriately allocated, it is a cause for concern,” Rosborough said.

The girl’s biological parents have accused the provincial government of negligence in a $45,000 lawsuit.”

Lack of funding, medical training contributed to foster girl’s death: report

[Edmonton Journal 8/22/13 by Ryan Cormier]

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