Month after month for the past few years, the coroner releases a tally of overdose deaths. The bar graph shows 20 years of overdose fatalities in the 200 to 400 range. Then in 2015, the bar jumps to a level of 500 deaths.
In 2016, it reached the 1,000 mark. In 2017, it topped 1,400. So far this year, it’s tracking to reach similar levels.
The huge spike in the past three years is what prompted the special reporting in the first place. But the shock value seems to be wearing off. Most of the updates come with analysis of different background details about the unprecedented fatality count, and there’s the requisite coverage of each report. Losing more than 100 people a month to drug overdoses, however, looks to be the new normal now.
Maybe the report on a different topic issued by the coroner on Monday will change the level of reluctant acceptance. It comes from the coroner’s service death-review panel of all fatalities from 2011 to 2016 among young people who had some involvement with the Ministry of Children and Family Development and were transitioning to independence.
That’s such an exciting time for young people who have supportive families and got a good grounding. Their heads are full of ideas about trips and schools and jobs and adventures.
But for a certain percentage of those 17- to 25-year-olds who spent time in care or were just emerging from the government support system, it can be a time of despair. The panel identified 200 people in that specific category who died over that six-year period. That’s a death rate that is five times the rate of the general population of young people in B.C.
And 89 of the deaths were related to illicit drug overdoses. That’s an average of 15 a year. It’s a small share of the total overdose fatalities, but the cumulative loss of young people who should have been poised for takeoff is a sorrowful number.
The report said many such youths make it through that period showing resilience and strength. But they have far more challenges. They have no family support network, no money; they’re short on life skills. They often don’t have a high-school diploma, and some have been scarred by trauma associated with violence and neglect.
The death-review panel’s findings are about what you’d expect. There was a disproportionate number of Indigenous youth, high rates of suicide, high rates of mental-health issues, and systemic and personal barriers to the goal of successfully reaching adulthood.
If there’s a single key metric a government should use to measure general progress, that death rate should be it. It’s high on the list of the NDP government’s priorities. But it was a focus of the previous government as well. In fact, child welfare in general has been an on-and-off preoccupation of government for the past 20 years.
A few atrocity stories about horrifying child deaths prompted some deep looks at the issue. They, in turn, prompted a redesign of the system by Ted Hughes. That came with sizable budget hikes that poured more resources into the field.
The redesign included the Representative for Children and Youth’s office, which kept the spotlight switched on for years.
But despite all that, B.C. is losing about 33 young people who were in the government’s care to some degree to various causes of death that could be grouped under one heading — hopelessness.
The panel’s recommendations about where to concentrate attention all sound bureaucratic. Extending support services, improving communications with a goal of increasing engagement, monitoring outcomes are some of the ideas.
More specifically, it suggests further widening of supports past clients’ 19th birthdays. That started years ago, by way of Agreements with Young Adults. There were 373 in 2012 and they’ve grown to 896 last year.
They aren’t a quick fix, by any means. Several dozen had such agreements, but still succumbed. Still, the agreements are a way to provide direct help to people on the cusp of adulthood, a way of showing they’re not all of a sudden on their own.
Dropping some of the current restrictions is a tricky business, as the report notes.
But broadening their use is one tangible way of tackling a problem that shames us all.
