By Troy Gillard and Sheldon Spackman

Duty To Report

Child abuse reporting on the decline during pandemic

Apr 28, 2020 | 2:26 PM

The Central Alberta Child Advocacy Centre (CACAC) is joining their provincial counterparts in stressing the “moral and legal obligations” Albertans have in reporting child abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since physical distancing and isolation measures were put in place last month, CACAC officials have seen a decline in reporting. But CEO Mark Jones says that doesn’t necessarily mean a drop in instances of child abuse.

“That’s the fear of the work that we do,” he says. “If you look at our numbers, we have shown significant increases from each year that we’ve been open dealing with the central Alberta population.”

In 2019, the CACAC supported 459 children and youth in the region – a 29.3 per cent increase from 2018.

Jones says they were on that same trajectory again this year until the pandemic hit, resulting in an 18 per cent decline in files from mid-March to mid-April of this year when compared with the same time in 2019.

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“Our fear is that our children, they don’t have that safe place or safe person that they’re able to talk to right now. So we’re trying to do everything we can to connect our schools and community people with children they might be worried about. All the CACs have (come) together to launch this province-wide strategy, because if you can get the whole province talking about it there’s a far better chance that we won’t have those kids as great at risk.”

Another worry, Jones says, is that at-risk children have lost in-person contact with trusted sources – such as a teacher, dance instructor, coach, church leaders – during the pandemic.

“Ninety-six per cent of our cases, children know who their abuser is,” adds Jones. “When you’re in an isolation situation, in many cases, we’re having those kids stay in a home where there is a perpetrator in the home, and they’re subjected to domestic violence.”

Jones points out that the current financial stress on parents, along with the extended schooling from home scenario, are together, creating mental health issues for some.

He advises if you suspect child abuse, take the lead and make that phone call.

“Whether you suspect a child in your neighbourhood or one of your children’s friends, make the call,” says Jones. “Let the trusted agencies whose job it is to protect children do the investigation. If you suspect it, you have an obligation to report it.”

Though not unusual to see a drop in reporting during summer months when kids out of school, Jones warns it’s important to keep a close eye on potentially at-risk children during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Most of their sporting activities and their dance lessons, all that stuff, they end around June,” remarks Jones. “Then you have July and August, and all of a sudden comes that spike in September and October when they’re back in those organized sports and organized classrooms and all of those things are there for kids to have a safe outlet to talk to. But the longer this goes on, it just becomes more prevalent that they don’t have someone to talk to.”

Jones says it wouldn’t be surprising to see a spike in reporting once pandemic measures have been lifted.

“It scares me to think how long this could go.”

The Central Alberta Child Advocacy Centre is doing the best it can continue doing its work while physical distancing measures are in effect, Jones explains.

“We have all our forensic interviews still taking place, and we’ve tried as much as we can to limit them to the middle of the week. And we do our triage still, so all of those ministerial agencies are still together, but we do it via video conferencing. We still are doing the files and making action plans for children and their families.”

He adds, “There (are) vulnerable kids out there and there’s vulnerable parents out there too that need our help, and need us to be understanding and kind of guide them through this whole process.”