Denny, a youth in continuing care, was concerned about the conduct of his social worker and the amount of financial and other supports he was receiving from the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Denny had disclosed to his social worker that he was experiencing suicidal thoughts during a recent meeting and his social worker said it was “too much” and stood up to leave. Understandably, Denny was shaken by his social worker’ s reaction. An adult support worker who was also in attendance was similarly concerned and had tried to raise the issue with social worker’s supervisor but had not received a response.
Denny felt he was not being heard by ministry staff and believed his support needs and mental health issues were not being respectfully or adequately addressed.
We investigated whether the ministry responded fairly to Denny’s concerns.
We spoke to ministry staff and discussed the issues Denny had identified. In response to our investigation, the social worker’s supervisor spoke with them about what had occurred during the meeting. Although it seemed there may have been a misunderstanding of what was said during the meeting, we were advised that steps would be taken to ensure that the social worker was made aware of communication expectations to ensure Denny felt acknowledged and appropriately supported. Following this discussion, the social worker spoke to Denny about the recent meeting and facilitated contact with mental health services for Denny.
The ministry also confirmed that they had spoken with Denny’s adult support person about their concerns about the social worker’s conduct and that a meeting was arranged for the following week to collaboratively discuss planning options.
We followed up with Denny and he confirmed he had attended the meeting and that it was a positive experience. There was now a Youth Agreement in place with the ministry and he was able to access the supports he needed. We were satisfied with the steps taken by the ministry to quickly address the concerns raised in Denny’s complaint as it appeared that Denny was now feeling listened to and appropriately supported.
