A Lifeline for At-Risk Children and Youth

THE GOVERNMENT'S OWN L to R: Public service bargaining committee members Amanda Fast, Julie Dutt, Sonia Parmar, Christine Brisebois on the lawn of the legislature.

The nurses of the public service are passionate about their jobs. They have to be – many of these members work with some of the province’s most vulnerable children and youth, often under extremely challenging conditions.

“I love my job, and I love being part of a team that is making systemic changes for the kids that we care for,” says Julie Dutt, a community-based mental health clinician and public service bargaining committee member. Despite having strong experience in the field, Dutt has observed that the work has become increasingly complex in recent years.

“Since the pandemic, we’ve seen a major uptick in children and youth presenting with significant mental health issues such as anxiety disorders, eating disorders, depression, and suicidal ideation,” says Dutt. “These children may also be at high-risk for sexual exploitation, substance use and other high risk situations. It’s a lot, because the caseloads are so complex, and the need for intervention is so pressing.”

Dutt’s teams deal with children and youth in psychiatric crisis who are also experiencing social stressors or behavioural challenges. They act as a hub for these children in crisis, connecting them to other mental health services, providing outreach to families, the community and schools, and creating safety plans.

Treating these high-risk and high-intensity children and youth demands experienced nurses with specialized skills. “You’re looking for seasoned psychiatric nurses,” says Dutt, “who have excellent assessment skills, a strong knowledge of medications and their effects, a solid base in developmental trauma, and the ability to work in very complex systems.”

As recruitment and retention issues worsen in the public service, the demand for specialized care has increased. Following several tragic deaths of children in care throughout the province, recent reports from the Representative for Children and Youth paint a bleak picture of the inconsistencies in care for vulnerable children in BC. They point to the negative impacts of unhealthy working conditions, overwhelming caseloads, and challenges in integrating care teams across various ministries and service delivery lines on the care delivered to vulnerable children and youth. Recruiting and retaining nurses in the public service is one way the government can remedy these inconsistencies and support children and youth with complex mental health needs.

While this nursing work is incredibly challenging, short-staffing due to the difficulty of recruiting and retaining nurses makes the job even more difficult. Since negotiating the last public service contract in 2021, one in four nurses has left the public service. Many have moved to other nursing settings, while others have left the profession entirely. Dutt attributes the decline in staffing to wage inequities in the public service compared to health authorities.

“Without the ability to offer compensation on par with what other nurses get, it’s extremely difficult to attract skilled psychiatric nurses to the public service,” says Dutt.

“All nursing positions deserve to be compensated appropriately. We don’t want to see nursing positions disappear because of wage disparity.”

- Public service bargaining committee member Amanda Fast

Some public service nurses make between $6 and $14 less per hour than nurses who work under the NBA provincial collective agreement. Almost half of the nurses in the public service cannot access step ten on the wage grid, limiting compensation for the experienced nurses most needed in community-based jobs. Additionally, unlike nurses under the provincial NBA agreement, these members cannot access the Nurse Support Fund.

In recent contract negotiations with their employer, these public service nurses are emphasizing wage parity, training, more job opportunities for qualified and interested nurses, and more access to mental health support. But it’s been an uphill battle. The public service nursing contract expired in 2022, and negotiations with the employer moved slowly from the outset, with multiple bargaining sessions throughout the spring and early summer failing to reach an agreement.

Christine Brisebois, a nurse at the Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre in Coquitlam, puts it bluntly. “The government needs to do something significantly different this time to show they are committed to keeping these nurses,” she says.

Negotiators for the public service finally tabled wage proposals more recently, and the parties came to agreements around some key issues. Despite these improvements, the public service bargaining committee isn’t letting its foot off the gas. Because the patients who depend on them cannot afford to lose these highly trained, specialized, and dedicated nurses.

While their contract remains in flux, one thing is sure for public service nurses: they will carry on fighting so they can continue supporting their vulnerable patients and clients Sonia Parmar, a bargaining committee member at the Youth Forensics Psychiatric Services Centre in Burnaby, clarifies this key motivator: “I was very hesitant when I started working for the public service. But 12 years later, I’m still here. I love seeing the change that the youth undergo. It’s amazing.”

SUPPORTING VITAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

While many BCNU members in the public service work with youth in care, other public service nurses work in equally critical government agencies, such as RoadSafetyBC and the Office of Vital Statistics. These skilled nurses leverage their expertise to help keep the public safe, ensure equitable access to driver’s licences, and help the government keep track of the state of British Columbians’ health.

They have a lot at stake in this round of bargaining. Like other nurses in the public service, their wages are often between $6 and $14 less than their counterparts in health authorities. They are also facing similar pressures around recruitment and retention.

“If these issues don’t get resolved at the table, then our team will be unable to retain and recruit nurses,” says Amanda Fast, a bargaining committee member who works in the Driver Medical Fitness Program. According to Fast, the pressures on these members have contributed to delays in the case management of driver files.

These delays in driver fitness reviews can affect individuals’ ability to live and work, particularly for those with medical conditions and disabilities who are seeking licensing or relicensing. Additionally, delays can increase the risk to road safety if a driver may not be fit to drive.

These public service nurses want their fellow members to remember that their support matters. “Ensuring that all nurses are valued benefits the profession as a whole,” says Fast. “All nursing positions deserve to be compensated appropriately, and we don’t want to see nursing positions disappear because of wage disparity.” •

Further reading:

Missing: Why are Children Disappearing from BC’s Child Welfare System? Jennifer Charlesworth, Representative for Children and Youth, 2023.

Advocating for Change: Five Years in Review Jennifer Charlesworth, Representative for Children and Youth, 2023

Don’t Look Away: How One Boy’s Story has the Power to Shift a System of Care for Children and Youth Jennifer Charlesworth, Representative for Children and Youth, 2024

UPDATE (Summer 2024)