Family and Children's services defend themselves
by Kathy Ramsey - News Reporter
A Yukon News Archive story originally published November 1, 2000

The director of family and children's services says fears for the safety of clients and staff at the Klondike Group Home forced her to terminate Sandra Gibbs' $483,620-a-year contract to run the home for permanent wards of the state. Anne Westcott, who gave Gibbs the bad news on October 20, says the decision had nothing to do with the fact that Gibbs publicly accused the government of mismanaging youth care, as Gibbs alleges. "I'm concerned that she would think we would do something as significant as terminating a contract, which we've never done before, because of an issue of freedom of speech." Westcott says Gibbs was asked to take a government representative with her to any outside meetings about the Klondike Group Home as a courtesy to the department, not as an attempt to muzzle her. Westcott says a number of incidents in the home this year, combined with the findings of her department's 1998 review of the home, contributed to her decision to cancel Gibbs' contract. While Westcott admits Gibbs had implemented some of the review's recommendations, new concerns and incidents troubled her. "This year, a number of things happened, that taken together and superimposed on our experiences of two years ago, impressed upon me and the other people in the department how difficult it is to deliver a service to this clientele at arm's length," says Westcott. In April, a youth from Klondike was transferred to a new facility, following a serious incident in the home, says Westcott. Shortly after, safety concerns were brought to the attention of the Worker's Compensation Healthy and Safety Board by staff, she adds. "There were a number of issues related to safety of the young people in the home, which we had inquired into in the spring. "We thought we were just developing a plan to resolve those, and a number of safety issues related to workers safety were raised by some staff in the home." But Gibbs and her consulting psychologist, Janet Webster, say they had questioned the appropriateness of bringing the youth, who caused the April incident, into the home in the first place. Gibbs maintains she was continually pressured to accept teens whose needs were often incompatible with youth already in the Klondike home and whose behavior was, at times, detrimental to other youth housed there. Westcott agrees there was often tension during placement and review Committee meetings when decisions were made to transfer youth to the six group homes in the city, four of which are run by Gibbs. "It's fair to say there's been rigorous debate with Sandra and Janet," says Westcott. "You have social workers who believe that a young person would do well in this program, but on the other hand, on a number of occasions, Sandra has been saying, 'No, I don't accept this young person.' "That certainly created a tension, but it's part of the process; it's an acceptable tension to me. "From our point of view, we would prefer that she would take more (youth), but on the other hand, we've agreed to a process that allows her to say, 'No.' "To a certain extent," adds Westcott, Gibbs had the final say as to which youth went to the Klondike home. But family and children's services has faced difficulties in coping with an influx of troubled teens, says Westcott. The Children's Receiving Home, a 15-bed emergency placement shelter, has been full all year and children are staying there much longer than originally intended, says Westcott. Care of special-needs teenagers is a serious issue in the territory right now, she says. "I'm not entirely sure, being in the middle of things, whether the needs or the presenting problems, are changing dramatically. "Certainly, the number are changing for us - we have more of them and they're staying longer. "We certainly have more diagnosed mental illness, but that may be because we have more clinicians available to us now." Youth drinking, identified in the 1998 review as an major issue, remains a vexing problem, says Westcott. "This is an area where more can be done; it's an issue that's overlaid on top of all the issues that these young people are dealing with." Family and children's services has been working since the summer on a proposal it plans to present to Health and Social Services minister Don Roberts this month. Westcott says they want clear revisions to the residential program that will enable them to better address the pressing, and mounting, needs of youth. "We need to do a better job of providing clinical assessments early on, after a child's admission to care. "For years, we have sent young people outside the territory for treatment and specialized assessments. "Every year, we have a dozen we send out, and that is an extraordinarily disruptive thing for a kid." Westcott says they have proven that they can do specialized work with youth in the territory, and their goal is to do more of it. The government-run Residential Youth Treatment Services, which operates as a group home, has developed a successful program, she says. However, more group homes are needed to meet the growing demand, she says. And a number of improvements can be made to the department's quality assurance methods when in comes to a child's care, she says. But she says adopting a policy requiring a review each time a child has gone through a set number of foster placements, as is done in other jurisdictions, may not be necessary. "We're small enough that we don't have to wait for a certain number of placements. I think we're small enough that we can review every kid in care, every year." Westcott says plans are in place to implement the RYTS program at the Klondike Group Home when the department takes it over on December 20. "The program that has been developed at 16 Klondike over the last little while is a very behavioral program and it is, in our view, quite rigid. "We want to implement a more flexible home-like environment." The 21 current Klondike Group Home employees are encouraged to apply, she says. The goal is to eventually limit the number of youth in the Klondike Group Home to six from the current seven, she says. Another future goal is to switch the co-ed group home over to a single-gender home, she says.