ALBERTA JUDGE WANTS HELP FOR TROUBLED TEENS

STONY PLAIN, ALTA. - An Alberta judge is calling on the province to
do more to help troubled young people in government care -- even those
who actively refuse help.

Provincial Court Judge Peter Ayotte makes the request in his report on
a fatality inquiry into the suicide of a 17-year-old youth who had
been in government care for nearly six years.

Judge Ayotte concluded that the teen's troubles stemmed both from
addictions and from underlying psychological problems. Both need to be
addressed to prevent such tragedies, he wrote.

"There is a need for an integrated resource which will offer
simultaneous treatment for both psychological and substance-abuse
problems. We must attempt to see the whole child."

Judge Ayotte also concluded Alberta may need to beef up existing
legislation allowing parents or guardians to get court orders to force
drug-addicted children into treatment. That legislation only allows
the children to be kept in a safe house for five days.

"Needing help is not wanting it," Judge Ayotte wrote. "That may mean
dispensing with the need for consent, at least for a time."

Once government has taken guardianship of a child, it has taken over
the role of parents and must do everything within its power to help
that child. Being satisfied with providing basic needs isn't enough,
he said.

"If we do so, we abandon our responsibility to do everything
reasonably within our power to provide the guidance and protection
society promised when it sought guardianship in the first place."

Judge Ayotte said that some people may find it distasteful to
disregard a child's wishes, but it may be necessary when young lives
are at stake.

The judge recommends the government set up a task force of experts to
look for new ways and current best practices in other jurisdictions to
deal with children who refuse treatment for addiction or psychological
problems.