Deadly overdose crisis escalating among Alberta children and youth, child advocate warns

WARNING: This article contains details of self-harm.

Four months after child intervention workers withdrew services, 13-year-old Wren died from a drug overdose.

The Alberta girl, who loved to hike, camp and swim, had a traumatic upbringing marked by family violence and addiction.

She began harming herself and abusing drugs at a young age. At 12, she tried to overdose on over-the-counter medication. The following year, she died of drug toxicity. 

Wren's death represents an alarming trend, Terri Pelton, Alberta's child and youth advocate, cautions in a new report released Tuesday.

The report details the deaths of 18 young people in the six-month period between April 1 and Sept. 30, 2022. Wren's name is a pseudonym, as are the names of other young people in the report.

Under Alberta law, the child advocate must conduct reviews into the deaths of young people who die in care or within two years of receiving care.

Twelve of the young people in Pelton's report were receiving child intervention services at the time of their deaths. Six others had received intervention services within the previous two years.

Of the total 18 deaths, five were caused by drug toxicity. In another two cases, the manner of death was listed as suspected drug toxicity.

"The Office of the Child and Youth Advocate continues to receive notifications about a large number of young people dying from drug-related causes," Pelton writes in the report. "Of significant concern, this crisis is impacting younger children."

Wren, at 13, was the youngest to die from drug toxicity. All but two of the young people between the ages of 13 and 19 in the report had "significant substance use issues," Pelton writes.

In addition to making two recommendations to strengthening cultural connections for Indigenous youth in care, Pelton calls for urgent action from the provincial government to address a crisis of deadly overdoses among young people. 

Alberta needs to implement a youth opioid substance use strategy to prevent the tragic loss of young lives, Pelton said. 

Of the children who died, 14 were Indigenous. Pelton found that over half of them were disconnected from their families, communities, and culture.