Why are kids in government care running away? New report from B.C.'s children, youth rep sheds some light

B.C.'s representative for children and youth says too many children in government care are running away from their living situations, and a hard look is needed at what is pushing them to do so.

A new report from Jennifer Charlesworth highlights the scope of the problem and reasons for it, especially what she terms a feeling of "unbelonging" in places like foster homes or group homes.

"Every child needs to have a sense of belonging and connection and what we found was that in many situations, children were fleeing situations that weren't healthy or safe for them," Charlesworth said. 

"And they were being pushed out and pulled into other places where they might feel a greater sense of belonging, like a street family, and in that situation, becoming at greater risk of harm."

The children lost from care, she adds, are at higher risk of substance use, mental health crises, violence or sexual exploitation.

Missing kids gone for average of 13 days

Charlesworth's report looked at reports of kids missing between April and December of last year.

Her office received over 500 reports of missing kids who were critically injured or were at-risk of serious harm, involving 198 individual children. Four of those kids died.

"They were all experiencing harms while they were missing," she said.

During those same months, her report continues, the Ministry of Children and Family Development received 12,000 reports of kids missing from their placements but had no identified safety concerns.

A sampling of 55 cases involving missing kids found the majority are 14-18 years old and 65 per cent are Indigenous. 

The average time kids were missing was 13 days.

About 0.7 per cent of kids in the general population will go missing or run away, but within the care system, it's about 2.3 per cent, according to the report. 

But all those numbers may be inaccurate: the report notes unreliable and inconsistent reporting of data — problems the ministry is aware of.

Recommendations

Charlesworth's report made short-term recommendations to help solve the issue: better data collection, faster reporting of missing kids and for caregivers to find ways to talk to kids about why they're going missing in a less judgmental way.

"A lot of the language we saw was very stigmatizing and blaming the young person for their situation rather than seeing the system's responsibility," she said.

Families minister Mitzi Dean, in a statement, said the ministry was committed to implementing those recommendations by November.

"When a child or youth in care is missing, we want them to receive the same response that a caring parent would give," Dean said. 

"We've already made important progress transforming the child welfare system in B.C. but I know we still have a long way to go, and we are committed to taking the steps that are needed to support youth in care."

Charlesworth says a number of agencies are convening in the coming months to further look into the problem.