DIEPPE, N.B. – A parenting and family coach says better access to mental health services could reduce violence against children in the province.
Charlene Savoie runs Peaceful families in Dieppe and says parents need better access to mental health services to manage stress and anger issues.
“Anger isn’t necessary a bad emotion,” Savoie said. “But when you deal with it in a non-therapeutic way, then it turns into violence.”
The province’s child and youth advocate released the troubling numbers about violence against children Tuesday.
According to their State of the Child Report, the number of children and youth in the province who are victims of family violence is at 365 cases per 100,000 people.
That’s much higher than the national average at 267 cases per 100,000.
Savoie says there’s a lot of families who could benefit from better care.
“I think there’s a lot of healing this province needs to have and again there’s more stigma here to seek out the help,” she said.
But children are now learning to protect themselves. Joe Grondin helps coordinate educational activites for students at the Anglophone East School District.
He says staff are working with students to make them aware if there is a problem. He says staff are watching out for students and they’re ready to help them if they need it.
“We try to create an environment where they know what’s right and wrong,” he said. “If a teacher notices body language or something totally different in their personality then we incorporate the guidance councillors and the administrators.
“They get in touch with all the help that they need.”
The Child and Youth Rights and Well-being Snapshot, released by the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate on Tuesday, points to disturbing facts with respect to harm to children:
- Two in three girls in New Brunswick say they have been bullied.
- The rate of children and youth who are victims of family violence in New Brunswick is much higher than the national average (365 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to the national average of 267).
- More than one in 20 young persons in New Brunswick admits to having taken methamphetamines.
- The injury hospitalization rate among children and youth in New Brunswick is higher than the national average (41.4 cases per 10,000 inhabitants, compared to the national average of 25.8).
- The rate of New Brunswickers charged with sexual offences involving children is much higher than the national average (7 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with 4.3 per 100,000 inhabitants for Canada as a whole).
READ MORE: State of the Child Report 2014
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