Ontario parents and caregivers are “exhausted” trying to find the right support for children with acute and intense needs within the social work and health-care systems, says the executive director of the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society (WECAS).

Derrick Drouillard told CBC’s Windsor Morning that getting proper support for young people with complex special needs is a “crisis across the whole province.”

“They’ve been attempting to find the services as support within the system to maintain their children in their own homes or within their community,” Drouillard said.

“They have come up against a lack of acute and intense resources to support them, supporting their children. And so oftentimes those children, youth, end up on the doorstep of a Children’s Aid Society.”

Drouillard said that while the number isn’t static, he estimates at any given time, their agency has seven to 10 children or youth who should not be in their system, but should be within the mental health system or in placements that support “high needs.”

Some of those children are being placed in hotels or living in the children’s services buildings themselves.

According to Drouillard, children living at a hotel are supported by Children’s Aid Society staff who do “their very best under the circumstances.”

“There are some youth that can and do get themselves out, go off to school, work, do other things. But they have other issues … they have other challenges. But for the most part, there’s always touch points.

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CBC News
October 25, 2023