N.S. child welfare system 'incredibly broken,' say experts after guilty plea in toddler death

The caseful of a baby who was killed by his fuss shortly after beingness returned from further care has shed a rare and needed spotlight on the child welfare system, say experts in the field.

Isaiha Surette was 17 months old when he died in 2020 after his mother threw him from a bed onto a hardwood floor. The impact caused swelling and bleeding in his brain, and he died in hospital three days after the incident.

His mother, April Wendy Marie Surette, 32, pleaded guilty this week to manslaughter in Yarmouth provincial court. She is scheduled to be sentenced in March, when the Crown and defence will seek a six-year prison term.

Isaiha had been in foster care in the months beforehand, and had been returned to the family home just two weeks before the incident that led to his death.

“When we hear about the most tragic ending to a child's life, it sparks lots of questions about how are our systems performing,” says Alec Stratford, the registrar of the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers.

The college regulates the profession, including social workers who help make decisions about whether a child is removed from a family home or returned after foster care.

Stratford says social workers have high caseloads that prevent them from building the relationships they need with parents to ensure they are supported and safe.

“Right now it feels like you're just running from fire to fire to fire without the opportunity to connect, to understand more and to put forward meaningful case plans that are going to make a substantial difference in folks’ lives.”

He added that social workers experience a lot of “moral distress” on the job that contributes to a high turnover rate, resulting in newer, inexperienced workers taking on difficult child welfare cases.

“They are in people's homes experiencing the failures of our broader systems and feel helpless to be able to change that,” Stratford says.

“They are doing what they can with the tools that they are given, with the time that they have to try and make meaningful changes in peoples lives, but often don't feel like the system is there to support them in doing that.”

Stratford says the college is considering investigating whether the social work standards were met in the case of Isaiha and April Surette.

Brooke Richardson is a professor in the child and youth studies department at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax who researches child welfare systems.

She says it is easy for people to solely blame the mother in cases such as Surette’s, “as this is the easiest place to pin down the harm.”

“But to me, this is such a clear case of systemic failure,” Richardson says.

She points to Surette’s phone search history prior to Isaiha's death, which included searches about hating her 17-month-old, her child crying too much, and bonding with a child after foster care.

One of her searches just three days before the incident was, “Is it OK to let a dog and cat babysit a 17-month-old baby?”

Richardson says those searches show she was looking for help in isolation.

“She clearly recognized she was struggling and was looking for support, help or answers. She was desperate and knew she was desperate,” she says.

With ongoing parenting support, counselling and respite care, “this story could have a very different ending,” Richardson says.

It is unclear from the court documents what supports Surette had in place before and after Isaiha was returned to the home. An agreed statement of facts filed on Monday said she had supervised weekend visits with the boy for two months leading up to his return.

Surette also texted a parent support worker the day before Isaiha was fatally injured, stating she believed he had autism and anxiety.

Jacqueline Barkley is a therapist who works primarily with parents in the child welfare system at her private practice.

"The child protection system as it currently exists is incredibly broken," Barkley says.

She says parents who become involved with child welfare services often have a history of trauma, which could include domestic violence, racism, poverty or other factors.

Barkley says when a child is returned home after being in foster care, supports for the parent are often limited, and general mental health support may not be immediately accessible if they don’t have a diagnosable mental health illness.

“For a child protection client whose problems are life problems, it's not like they can call the mental health system and say 'Hi, I'm having life problems and a history of trauma.'"

Barkley says the response would be something along the lines of "Are you suicidal? No. Are you hearing voices? No. Are you psychotic? No. Well, we'll put you on the waitlist and contact you in six months.”

Rollie Thompson is professor emeritus at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law, where he teaches a child protection course. He is also a former legal aid lawyer who has worked on child protection cases, and was one of the two people who drafted the Children and Family Services Act in the province.

Thompson says it's rare to get even a glimpse into the child welfare system, and this case only came to public light because of the criminal case.

He says the fact that Isaiha was returned to the family home suggests that progress was being made, but that “sometimes you have all kinds of things pointing towards good results and then something bad happens.”

“It's all about risk … and they're very difficult judgments,” Thompson says. “The only thing you can hope for is that you have people who are properly trained, with decent caseloads, with adequate support services when they're making those judgments.”

Thompson says the child welfare system is underfunded and operates out of the public eye, making it easier to stay underfunded.

“So we know what the problems are. There just isn't the will to solve them on the part of governments,” he says.

“Child protection is a very low priority, despite public statements.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the department said decisions about returning a child to the family’s care are based on the family’s progress in addressing safety and well-being concerns. Supports may continue after a child is returned if they are believed to be in the child’s best interest or if they are requested by parents, the statement said.

When a child is injured or dies while receiving Child and Family Wellbeing (CFW) services, the CFW participates in a review of the incident to identify ways to prevent such incidents in the future, the statement said.

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