New details of an advocate investigation show New Brunswick’s Department of Social Development was asked 15 times by community members to check on the safety of a teenager formerly in government care before he died.
The callers reported the boy, known only as Bobby, had stopped going to school, was addicted to fentanyl, and living in a car with his mother — who, they said, had supplied him the drugs.
Eventually, a hospital called Social Development to report that Bobby was lying alone in a hospital bed, after an overdose, with his parents nowhere to be found.
But the department determined that none of these circumstances met the bar for a child protection intervention.
Bobby himself asked Social Development for help accessing treatment for his addiction, twice, but that help never came.
WATCH | ‘The story of a child who died in slow motion’:
TITLE: Youth died after 15 calls to Social Development for help
New details show family, friends, educators, health-care workers, neighbours and even police contacted Social Development because they were concerned for a teenager’s safety. Help never came before his death at 16 years old.
The boy died from a second overdose months later.
Child and youth advocate Kelly Lamrock said Bobby’s death was preventable.
“This is … the story of a child who died in slow motion,” Lamrock said at a press conference Thursday.
This story was brought to Nouzie by RSS. The original post can be found on https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story-child-died-slow-motion-9.7215223?cmp=rss
