November 29, 2004

Additional staff resources will be provided to the perinatal services program at Winnipeg Child and Family Services to assist the program to continue to effectively meet the needs of teenage parents, Family Services and Housing Minister Christine Melnick announced today.

The resources are been added in order to improve services provided to teens under the age of 18 who are pregnant or are the parent of a newborn.

"I want to ensure the perinatal services program at Winnipeg Child and Family Services is meeting the needs of young parents and their infants who are completely dependent on their caregivers," said Melnick. "We remain confident in this program and will continue to support its important work with teen parents and their children as part of the Winnipeg Child and Family Services (WCFS) agency."

The addition of two workers brings the number of staff to 10 for the program including eight social workers with unique skills and experience to meet the needs of young parents. Improvements to the unit will include:

• An additional two full-time social work positions will be reallocated to the Perinatal Unit from within WCFS on an interim basis.

• An examination will be conducted of workload within the Perinatal Unit with emphasis on the current barriers to early assessment and intervention and the movement/ sharing of cases.

• WCFS will work with the Perinatal Unit to ensure that risk assessments include an assessment of the influence of all individuals involved with a case and that, where appropriate, criminal risk assessments are conducted.

• The department will work with WCFS and the child and family services General Authority to ensure specialized perinatal service delivery in Winnipeg through the Integrated Service Delivery (ISD) Initiative after the devolution of cases through the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry - Child Welfare Initiative process.

• The department will work in collaboration with the four child and family services Authorities to review and renew the strategy for delivery of child and family services to adolescent parents throughout the province.

• The department will continue to ensure that the unique needs of adolescent parents are appropriately reflected.

The program provides a variety of services to expectant or young parents, who are under the age of 18. This includes assessing their capacity for parenting, helping them consider potential options and linking them with community supports including medical care and counselling regarding their emotional and financial needs. Services can later be transferred to other agencies after the parent reaches 18 if on-going services are needed.

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