Three quarters of DPJ children should not be there, estimates Lionel Carmant

Five years after the death of the little girl from Granby, the Youth Protection Department (DPJ) is still overwhelmed with cases that it should not be handling, believes the Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant. The minister believes that it is the health network, and not the DPJ, which should take care of three-quarters of the children whose report is accepted.

Since the submission of the report of the Laurent commission, established after the death of the little girl from Granby, which broadly underlined the weakness of the first youth line of the health network, the minister says he has taken care of this project as a priority. . For the first time, he says he is seeing encouraging signs.

“Reports have been increasing for ten years, by 5 to 10% per year. Last year, we limited it to 1%, and this year, we may reduce it a little,” he explains.

The fact remains that reports to youth protection exceed the figure of 100,000 each year. Of this number, 40,000 are selected, but only 10,000 concern priorities 1 and 2, therefore situations where intervention must be taken within 48 hours. It is strictly these cases that the DPJ should deal with, believes Mr. Carmant.

“If our stakeholders focused on these 10,000 reports, we would be in business,” he says. These are the level 3 priorities that pile up. I think these cases should be made by the front line. » Mr. Carmant would like the DPJ to devote itself strictly to what he describes as an “intensive care” role. Initiatives have already been put in place in certain regions, others will follow, he says.

Because without these changes, the famous waiting list for evaluation on which “it will always be judged”, he agrees, will never really go down. The number of opened and retained reports that are on a waiting list for assessment increased to 4,000 in September 2023 and has stagnated since. The objective is to have 3,000 pending cases in September 2024 and 0 in 2026.

One in ten young people should not be in a rehabilitation center

Likewise, rehabilitation centers for young people take care of cases that they should not take care of, believes Minister Carmant. Children with intellectual disabilities or autism spectrum disorder (ID-ASD) should never find themselves there.

Of the 3,000 children housed in rehabilitation centers, there are currently 250 young people with DI-ASD, according to Mr. Carmant, who believes that this number is “possibly underestimated”.

The number of accommodation requests has been increasing in recent years in the province’s youth centers, in particular because of this clientele. Mr. Carmant believes that since the pandemic, more and more parents “are no longer capable” of caring for their severely disabled children and are requesting accommodation. The minister is working to offer them more respite.

But in the next year, he also wants to “take DI-ASD children out of youth centers and put them in more suitable environments”, in particular intensive behavioral rehabilitation units (URCI). Quebec currently has four.

Next project: staff shortage

Overall, the social services network is not doing well, he agrees, and this is his next project. Across Quebec, a thousand positions are unfilled, including 200 in evaluation-orientation. The observation of failure is particularly glaring in this sector, where stakeholders are responsible for evaluating cases once the report has been received.

“When Granby arrived, my first instinct was to add resources to the evaluation-orientation. There were 700 of us at the time, there are still 700 now. It’s the most difficult, heaviest job. » The worst regions are precisely those where the first line is the most disorganized, says Mr. Carmant. “Estrie, Mauricie–Centre-du-Québec, the Laurentians. And Anglo Montreal, because of the difficulty of finding English-speaking workers. »

Could this staff shortage, which is increasingly being filled with agency staff, lead to a new tragedy? “It sure stresses me out,” agrees Lionel Carmant. But we have put everything in place so that it doesn’t happen again. For example, three quarters of verifications following a report are carried out by going into the field. »

Without regret

Lionel Carmant is at the heart of many difficult issues: the DPJ, homelessness, mental health. Despite everything, he assures that he does not regret having left medicine for politics. “It’s a life-changing experience. It’s not easy, but it’s extremely rewarding,” he says.

The minister affirms that with the creation of Santé Québec, he thought of “bringing out the DPJ from the CISSS and CIUSSS”. But the speakers “didn’t want to go back there,” he said.

Mr. Carmant affirms that the creation of Santé Québec, the “operational arm” of the network, will not shake up the ground. But he believes that it is “not normal that there are regions that have been doing well for a long time and that these best practices cannot be deployed everywhere. It takes support 365 days a year, and we hope that Santé Québec will be able to do that.”