Photo: www.cariboucentre.com

By Shane Clausing

Child abuse reports drop

Caribou Child & Youth Centre concerned about drop in Child Abuse Reports during COVID-19

Apr 29, 2020 | 5:00 AM

Since March 18, around when the COVID-19 pandemic began in Grande Prairie, the Caribou Child & Youth Centre says child abuse reporting has been on the decline.

In a statement, the Caribou Child & Youth Centre said that child abuse caseloads typically drop during the summer when children are not attending school or participating in after school programs and sports. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and classes being canceled, this trend is occurring earlier than usual.

The Caribou Centre says up until March 18, it had seen a steady incline in child abuse reporting compared to their rates in 2018 and 2019, which is a good thing.

In the first 3 months of 2020 cases at the Caribou Centre were up 27 per cent from the 2019 rates for January, February, and March. The centre has seen an uptick every year, which signifies a change in the community as people are reporting child abuse cases.

While the decline in reports might seem significant and encouraging, Buffy MacIntosh with the Caribou Centre says it does not mean child abuse itself is on the decline.

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“I don’t actually think there’s been a drop in actual cases, what we’re looking at is often the amount of reporting of cases. It is actually concerning. We find that reports go up when communities are educated around the signs of child abuse.”

Macintosh adds that child abuse reports across the province are also down, and she would not be shocked if the number of nationwide reports has also declined.

Macintosh says she does not know if reports will increase at the centre once COVID-19 has become controlled.

“We really are in uncharted territory so it’s really hard to say what’s going to happen when things start to get back to normal. We are trying encourage some public awareness, were trying to make people aware that they can still report, that there are things that you can look for in terms of child abuse and just trying to share that as much as we can through our community resources.”

For those that want to learn more about what signs of child abuse there are several free options available. The Caribu Centre has information on their website, albertacacs.ca is also a good tool for education.

To report child abuse you can contact the Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-387-5437 (KIDS) or call the RCMP at 780-830-5700.