Advocate report calls for improved child intervention assessments

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on November 29, 2025.

newsdesk@medicinehatnews.com

A report released Thursday from the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate highlighted the importance of adequate child intervention assessments.

The report, titled Calling for Change: Investigative Reviews Report 2024-2025, looked at 69 investigative reviews that took place between April 1, 2024 and Mar. 31, 2025.

The reviews were conducted to investigate the death of 60 children and young people with child intervention involvement and the serious injury of nine others. The age of the individuals whose circumstances were investigated ranged from 10 days to 23 years old.

For more than half the young people, child intervention assessments did not fully reflect caregiver capacity or adequately identify risks, disruptions in relations and other factors that can influence safety, well-being and long-term outcomes.

Forty-eight children and youth had mental health or substance use problems, and 33 died due to substance-related causes.

One particularly disturbing case saw a 19-month-old die from toxic opioid and methamphetamine exposure after previous concerns about her safety were not fully addressed.

“It is essential that child-serving systems recognize young people’s needs and provide appropriate care. This begins with adequate child intervention assessments,” said Terri Pelton, the Child and Youth Advocate.

“Many of these young people had horrific starts to their young lives, and that stays with them,” said Pelton. “While there are times when the government must intervene to ensure a child’s safety, professionals must recognize how this compounds their trauma and provide them with the support they need as early as possible to mitigate these impacts.”

Public Interest Alberta issued a statement Thursday saying the findings in the report expose “critical and persistent failures in Alberta’s child intervention system.”

“Alberta continues to fail the children it is legally and morally responsible to protect,” said Bradley Lafortune, executive director of Public Interest Alberta. “These tragedies are not inevitable, they are the result of chronic underfunding, inconsistent assessments and government inaction on repeated recommendations.

“We cannot keep accepting reports filled with preventable deaths. The government must act now to provide culturally grounded support, trauma-informed services and stable resources that actually keep children and families safe.”

The report makes three recommendations to improve the circumstances of young people receiving services through the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act, the Protection of Sexually Exploited Children Act, or the youth justice system.

The Office of the Child and Youth Advocate is an independent office of the Alberta Legislature representing the rights, interests and viewpoints of children and youth receiving designated government services.

Recommendations are as follows:

– The Ministry of Children and Family Services should make the Transition to Adulthood Program policy manual publicly available.

– The Ministries of Primary and Preventative Health Services, Hospital and Surgical Health Services, Education and Childcare, Assisted Living and Social Services, and Justice should have mandatory training in child-centred, trauma-informed practices for professionals who deliver services to young people and their families.

– The Ministries of Primary and Preventative Health Services, Hospital and Surgical Health Services, Children and Family Services, Education and Childcare, and Assisted Living and Social Services should each implement an approach to identify young people’s traumatic experiences that will guide the planning of services and supports that are responsive to their individual needs.

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