Alberta's child advocate calls for expanded role to offer mental-health supports

The watchdog for Alberta's most vulnerable young people wants an expanded mandate so he can help clients get the mental-health care they need in a timely fashion.

Child and Youth Advocate Del Graff handed in a written submission this week to the Alberta legislative committee reviewing the act that governs his office.

Graff and several groups that work with young people are asking that changes be made to allow the advocate's office to provide better support to those who need mental-health services.

Advocate wants expanded role

Currently, the advocate's office can only offer mental-health support to young people who are caught up in the justice system or involved with child welfare.

"If young people have mental health concerns and they need advocacy, and they don't have involvement with those other two systems, then currently they're not within our designated services group," said Graff.

He said young people have consistently called his office to point out that changes are needed.

Graff's recommendation to expand the advocate's role is one of a series of ideas he presented to the standing committee on legislative offices.

A number of agencies that work with young people have called for the same measure.

"When the advocate isn't able to look at the youth in a holistic manner, they are losing part of that youth's story," said Catherine Broomfield, executive director of iHuman Youth Society, which uses art and music to inspire young people.

The Boys and Girls Club of Canada, which has 25 clubs in Alberta, said the growing number of mental health cases requires a new approach, especially given that more such illnesses are being diagnosed in younger children.

"I would hope that the review of the legislation will allow for a broader scope for us to throw our fish nets a little bit farther out, in order to put systems in place to support youth sooner," said Karen McCullagh, the regional director of the western region for the boys and girls club.

McCullagh said the current system makes it difficult to negotiate for young people who need support.

The committee listened to 27 presentations and accepted written submissions as well. In total, 65 proposals were made.

Committee chair promises issue will be discussed

The chair of the all-party committee, NDP MLA David Shepherd, said the act is being reviewed to look for ways to allow the child and youth advocate's office to be more effective.

He said expanding the role of the office would be an important idea to consider.

"We have the opportunity to discuss what the needs are, what needs to be done on the ground," said Shepherd. "How our resources can best be deployed. So, I think that's a good area of discussion to have."

Graff said he understands the committee must now grapple with a number of areas as it works through the legislation. But he said the mental health issue is important to many young people.

"We made a submission to the mental-health review committee some time ago, where we took some young people to go in front of the committee to talk about the kind of challenges they experienced in the mental-health system," he said.

The committee is expected to complete its review of the Child and Youth Advocate Act by the end of June.