Child Suicide Attempts Rising: Children’s Advocate
Thursday, May 05, 2011 at 14:39
The number of suicide attempts by children who are in government care appears to be on the rise, says Saskatchewan’s Children’s Advocate.
Yesterday, Bob Pringle talked about his annual report, which found there were 43 children who experienced critical injuries while in care.
Pringle says about a quarter of those incidents involved children who tried to harm themselves.
Meantime, other experts have told him they believe the number of suicide attempts by kids in care is on the rise.
Pringle adds about 90 per cent of the kids with the critical injuries were Aboriginal and a lack of mental health services for them may have been largely to blame.
He adds that begs the question of whether or not the needs of the children were being met while in care.