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WHILE RESTRAINED IN BRAMPTON GROUP HOME "To help families care for disabled
loved ones" was The Globe and Mail editorial, Tuesday, February 26, 2002,
about the lessons of Stephanie's death. Click on:
Inquest set to begin into
group home death.
NANCY CARR CANADIAN PRESS An inquest beginning Monday into the death of a 13-year-old autistic girl in a group home should expose the "culture of disrespect for children's rights," said a youth activist seeking approval for young group-home residents to testify at the proceedings. "There are lots of great group homes but the problem is the bad ones," said Matthew Geigen-Miller of the Ottawa-based youth rights group Defence for Children International. "There's very little scrutiny and accountability." Stephanie Jobin died at a Brampton, Ont., group home for children in 1998 after staff restrained her under a bean bag for 20 minutes. She was under the care of the Peel Children's Aid Society and had been living in a facility called Digs for Kids since 1995. When it announced the inquest in March, Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor General said it would review the events surrounding Jobin's death, the use of restraints and staff training at group homes. The similarities between Jobin's death and that of William Edgar, 13, who died after being restrained in a Peterborough, Ont., group home in 1999, piqued Geigen-Miller's interest. Edgar and Jobin were both restrained in an unorthodox manner by group-home workers who weren't trained in first aid or CPR and couldn't revive the residents once they realized their lives were in danger. Geigen-Miller, 23, undertook a letter-writing campaign to every province and territory, asking if their group-home staff were trained in crisis intervention training, first aid and CPR. "It shocked me that most provinces are missing one of those three things," Geigen-Miller said. British Columbia, he learned, requires every group home to have a first-aid kit on hand, but staff aren't trained in how to use its contents, he said. And in Ontario, where most government-sponsored residential care is contracted out to private companies, the government doesn't keep track of who has what kind of training. "The letter I received from province of Ontario was the most brazen," Geigen-Miller said of the communication dated Jan. 13, 2002. "It said first aid and CPR training, if required by front-line staff, are the responsibility of the employer. That is really, really disturbing to me." The use of restraints — where one or more people hold a person to immobilize him — also disturbs Geigen-Miller. In September 2001, the day after the inquest into Edgar's death ended, the Ontario government ordered residential-home staff to use restraints only when a resident is a danger to himself or others. The inquest, which is not a judicial trial but a finding of fact, ruled that Edgar's death was a homicide. Despite the new regulation, children are still being restrained, often in ways that aren't taught in any textbook, Geigen-Miller said. "They're being grabbed, pulled by their hair, shoved into corners, getting rug burn for things like not wanting to eat dinner or swearing at staff," Geigen-Miller said. "That's activity that poses a threat to a staff member's sense of power and authority, but not to their physical well-being." Geigen-Miller said he hopes that by having young group-home residents testify, he can drive home the need to enforce the recommendations made following the Edgar inquest and those that come out of the Jobin inquest. "Children who live in group homes and are at risk of being restrained are some of the best experts we can hear from," he said. Expected to testify at the five-week inquest are Jobin's father Denis, the Peel Children's Aid Society, the Hastings Children's Aid Society and staff from Digs for Kids. *** Physical restraint not needed
for girl, father tells inquest
BRAMPTON -- The father of 13-year-old Stephanie Jobin took the witness box yesterday and described his autistic daughter as a beautiful child who could be managed with loving care rather than physical restraint.Denis Jobin was testifying on the opening day of an inquest into the death of Stephanie at a residential group home for children in 1998.Stephanie died after being physically restrained by staff at the home, known as Digs for Kids, in Brampton, northwest of Toronto. Mr. Jobin said his relationship with
his daughter didn't become close until her mother, his estranged wife,
died after suffering a brain aneurysm during a visit with the girl in 1995.As
he came to know his daughter, Mr. Jobin said, he learned ways in which
he could control her often violent outbursts, during which she sometimes
tried to hurt her caregivers and herself."There's no need to right away
apply physical restraint unless they're really hurting themselves," said
Mr. Jobin, who held a photo
Also expected to testify are the staff from Peel Children's Aid Society, the Hastings Children's Aid Society and Digs for Kids.Mr. Jobin described one of his visits, during which Stephanie lunged at him from across the table."I looked her straight in the eyes and I hugged her -- she stopped," he said. Mr. Jobin testified that he believed his daughter was improving during the time she was at the Digs For Kids home. He also testified that he did not realize Digs for Kids was a privately run group home."The assumption I made was that Digs for Kids was a government-run agency" Mr. Jobin said. Crown counsel Tyler Shuster opened the inquest with a lengthy explanation of the circumstances leading up to Stephanie's death.Mr. Shuster described how she was frequently restrained at the variety of group homes in which she lived over the course of her short life. Family Services Minister Brenda Elliott
announced yesterday that the province is putting an additional $58.6-million
into services for children with autism.The largest chunk of the money,
$39.6-million, will go to providing "intensive behavioural intervention"
for young autism patients.
Matthew Geigen-Miller, a youth activist seeking approval for young, group-home residents to testify at the inquest, said he wants to see changes made to the culture of care at group homes for children with developmental disabilities. "What this inquest is really about is the disrespectful culture of residential care of children in the province of Ontario," said Mr. Geigen-Miller, who represents the Ottawa-based youth rights group Defence for Children International. Worker applied different
force. Used beanbag to restrain girl Inquest probes 13-year-old's death
The social worker in charge of a 13-year-old autistic girl's primary care for three years never resorted to the type of force that was used to restrain her the day she suffered fatal injuries at a Brampton group home, an inquest was told. John Wickham had to physically restrain Stephanie Jobin an average of once a month at the Digs For Kids home to protect himself or others from her attacks or attempts at self-injury, but never by sitting on her back while she was being held down, he testified yesterday. Stephanie died on June 21, 1998, four days after being rushed to hospital following an episode in which two workers pinned her face down on the floor, with one holding her legs and the other sitting on a beanbag chair on her back in an effort to restrain her from attacking them. During the incident, which lasted about 20 minutes, Stephanie began to turn blue and the workers called 911. But her breathing had stopped and she suffered severe brain damage. Only a month before that, Wickham had left the group home to pursue another job. Wickham said he considered himself lucky to have a special relationship with Stephanie, who was particularly fond of him, adding that the use of distraction techniques to stop Stephanie's outbursts of aggression worked 99 per cent of the time. But on the occasions when he had to physically restrain her she was most commonly placed in a prone position on the floor for a short time, but no heavy beanbag was used, he testified. He conceded Stephanie was exceptionally strong for a girl her age and "one day she got me good as I bent down to pick up some crayons she had spilled. In an instant she jumped on my back and clung to my hair," Wickham said. Stephanie liked being restrained because it got her attention, he said. She was placed in the Brampton home in December, 1995 by the Hastings Children's Aid Society, which cared for her for several months after her mother Sharon Small of Bancroft reached "the breaking point" in trying to cope with her daughter's condition, testified Kirk Gosse, a children's aid worker. Small died of a brain aneurysm on Remembrance Day, 1995. Gosse explained how difficult it was to find a group home that would accept a child with autism as severe as Stephanie's. He checked with 37 homes over a one-year period before Digs For Kids agreed to accept her. "She is the most difficult child I have ever personally encountered," Gosse testified. If the provincial government set
up a central registry of licensed group homes that social workers could
access, it would make it far less difficult to find places for children
like Stephanie, Gosse testified.
Restraint method unknown to official. Beanbag placed on teen's back Inquest told girl difficult to handle MIKE FUNSTON, PEEL/HALTON BUREAU, Toronto Star, 21 November 2002 A restraint technique that led to the death of a 13-year-old autistic child at a Brampton group home would have sparked an investigation had the Peel Children's Aid Society found out about it, an inquest was told. Donna Smart, a society worker responsible for reviewing treatment plans used for Stephanie Jobin at the Digs For Kids group home, testified yesterday she had never heard of staff there using a heavy weight on Stephanie's back while restraining her from violent outbursts. Described as being exceptionally strong for her age, Stephanie was prone to such outbursts and frequently had to be restrained to prevent injuries to herself and to staff members. In fact, two caregivers were hurt by her seriously enough to miss work, the inquest heard. During her worst outbursts, staff at the home had been trained to pin Stephanie face down on the floor with a worker holding her arms and another her legs until she calmed down. On June 17, 1998, she was held down by a worker who placed a heavy beanbag chair on her back and sat on it, while another sat on her legs for about 20 minutes. Her breathing stopped, she suffered severe brain damage and died four days after being rushed to hospital. Smart testified she routinely received reports from the group home about the restraint incidents and described communication with the group home staff as being good. She conceded that Stephanie was "very difficult," and required constant one-on-one supervision. Julie Kerr, manager of a special education program, Tre-Add, to which Stephanie was bused during the day, testified that workers there employed a face-down on the floor restraint method similar to that used at the group home. Up to four workers were needed to restrain her at times, Kerr testified. Because of the difficulty Stephanie posed to them, staff proposed using some form of mechanical restraint on Stephanie, but the group home officials didn't believe it was appropriate and refused to allow it, she said. |