When kids are taken away, their parents need more immediate support, advocates say

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Mary Burton knows it's critical to support parents after their kids are taken by the child welfare system, as her organization has worked for years to help make those connections and get families back together.

She also knows how few supports there are for parents in that situation, and how many are left completely alone to figure out what happens next.

"You don't have anybody to help you understand why your children were taken," said Burton, the executive director of Fearless R2W, a Winnipeg non-profit that works with families involved with the child welfare system.

"And that's incredibly traumatic, when your children are literally ripped from your arms and you have no one to talk to about it."

It's an issue that came up recently in Manitoba, after an Anishinaabe woman died by suicide after posting a live video on social media in late January saying she was a victim of domestic violence and sharing her struggles trying to get her children back from the province's child welfare system.

It's unclear which supports, if any, that woman was receiving.

A provincial spokesperson said while they can't comment on specific cases, there are services offered to domestic violence victims in Manitoba whenever a call is made to police.

Burton said her organization works to help set up resources in similar cases — from therapy and parenting programs to help with food and money. And most importantly, she said they help parents connect with child welfare agencies to start setting up visits.

"It's imperative that the parents know that they can see their children, that they're not being kept away from their kids," she told CBC's Information Radio host Marcy Markusa this week.

"Because that is the biggest fear that a parent has when they've been ripped away from their children: that they'll never see their kids again."

In Manitoba, it's an issue that disproportionately affects Indigenous families. Of the 9,196 kids in care as of March 31, 2022, 91 per cent were Indigenous.

Once the province's child welfare agencies get involved with a family, a "strength and needs assessment" is done to identify supports needed, a government spokesperson said in a statement. Protecting children is a primary goal of their response, which the spokesperson said is adjusted on a case-by-case basis but prioritizes keeping children with family.

These child welfare systems need to do a better job of supporting parents whose children are taken from them, particularly when the parent is the victim of domestic violence, said Kendra Nixon, a professor in the University of Manitoba's faculty of social work.