Program driving families apart

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About three years ago, social services managers in Bonnyville, Alta., implemented a new program to help keep families together when the department was on the brink of removing children.

The project chugged along quietly winning enthusiastic endorsements from social service workers in the community 160 km northeast of Edmonton and attracting interest from other agencies.

But in recent weeks, at least two of the about 50 families served in the last few years have come forward, saying Bonnyville's in-home support program has driven their families apart.

"It set up a routine for my kids, which was a good thing," said Fernie Marty, a single father of six. "But then the in-home support service became an in-home takeover service."

Bonnyville's in-home support program is designed as an alternative to foster care. Instead of taking kids away from family, workers culled from the community are sent into the home to help families avoid dangerous situations, sometimes on a 24-hour basis.

The idea is straightforward. After two weeks of basic training, workers are slowly introduced to a family where they are expected to help build a stable routine for the kids.

Workers may be required to do anything from house cleaning and family budgeting to supporting families who are seeking special counselling. When the program is successful, families are given the tools to cope on their own without relying on outside help.

For Marty, however, the experience worked in reverse. Instead of gaining an even-handed control over his household, he felt himself becoming a fifth wheel, a redundant part that had no role in the home.

"It turned into a long nightmare," said Marty. In-home workers complained about his pipe and smudging ceremonies and once threw out a moose roast, saying it was not something to feed children.

"There was no stopping....How in the hell was I supposed to show any initiative when everything was taken away from me?"

"It was like what you call surveillance," said Maryanne Morningchild, another parent who feels the program broke her family apart. "All they did was look at the bad points in our lives. Our history of drug and alcohol abuse....They didn't give us two minutes a day alone with our children to tell them we loved them."

Despite criticism from Marty and Morningchild, social service organizations in the Bonnyville area defend the program, saying many families have been helped.

"We actually have satisfied customers," said Terry Aman, social services district office manager in Bonnyville.

"(Spying) is a perception in maybe one per cent of the families we deal with....If we take over an aspect of a home, it is because that aspect of the home isn't being taken care of.....We wouldn't disempower."

Outside agencies are also supporting the project, saying social services are actively seeking community involvement in the project and working hard to iron out kinks.

"If you are going to put a program in place, it's not going t be 100-per-cent positive at first," said August Collins, a vice-president with the Metis Nation.

"This program keeps families together, which is better than taking kids away."

But complaints about the in-home service have attracted the attention of some child welfare workers like Bernd Walter, the province's child welfare advocate.

Walter says, while he supports aggressive forms of intervention in families, Bonnyville's in-home program raises many questions.

"The purpose of the in-home support is to give the family some tools. If what you are experiencing is so intrusive that you lose power, you are working against the idea."

Walter is reluctant to criticize the program directly. But he says he has "received comments" and has several questions about how in-home support is delivered.

In an interview he suggested families in the project may not be getting enough information to decide whether it will help them. He also questioned whether it is appropriate to send non-professionals to work so closely with familie in near-crisis situations.

"What I'm picking up is it's unclear whether a criteria exists to make those decisions," he said.