Lack of foster families in Montreal forcing siblings apart
CTV
A lack of foster homes in Montreal is tearing siblings apart, according to those who work in the system.
A lack of foster homes in Montreal is tearing siblings apart, according to those who work in the system.
"I'm not able to keep siblings together when I'm totally engorged like that," explains Marie-Pierre Ulysse with Batshaw Youth and Family Centres. "When I have a sibling group of three children...[they] will be split into three foster homes, three territories."
Ulysse, one of two managers in charge of foster care at Batshaw, says she worries about how separating siblings could affect them in the long term.
"We know that the siblings give each other a lot of support when they're coming into care," she tells CTV News. "What they have is, really, each other as a security. So it's really, really hard and difficult for the children."
Ulysse says the system tries as hard as it can to reunite them as soon as possible -- but it's rarely quick enough.
"We don't have enough resources. We have the children on the list and we will try to reunite the siblings afterward if they are going to stay in care," she explains. "My system is not that fast. Usually, I won't have them reunited too quickly."
Ulysse says that in an ideal world, she would like to be able to approve 25 more families for the "regular" foster program -- where children can be placed temporarily with the goal of returning to their birth parents.
