Thank you for this opportunity to present to the Standing Committee on Finance. We're very honoured to be part of the discussion today.
My name is Bonnie Johnston. I am the CEO of the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre in Calgary.
In my short time today I would like to focus on three areas: the social and economic impact of child abuse across this country; the emerging successes of the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre's integrated model of practice; and the opportunity provided by the centre and our partners to engage, with federal assistance, in a groundbreaking research study that has the potential to transform our understanding of the impact of child sexual abuse and identify and develop high-impact interventions and treatments with local, national, and global implications.
The impact of child abuse is profound. Children who have been abused are 30% less likely to graduate from high school, four times more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 26 times more likely to experience homelessness, and four times as likely to report self-harm or suicidal ideation.
Child abuse costs Alberta $2.4 billion every year and an estimated $21.5 billion annually within Canada. We now know through research that child abuse is a form of trauma and that prolonged trauma or toxic stress can impact the developing brain. If we do not deal with the impact of early childhood trauma, our country will continue to deal with the resulting outcomes of increased poverty, homelessness, mental health, and hopelessness, or as Sheldon Kennedy would say, “the outer layer of the onion”, which is not sustainable over time.
The need to do better for our children and think differently led to the development of the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre. The centre is a not-for-profit organization, working in partnership with six government organizations. Our practice is integrated, wrapping around the child and family. We serve all sexual abuse cases in the region and the most severe and complex cases of physical abuse and neglect. We assess 124 new cases per month, and over 34 months have assessed over 4,000 infants, children, and youth who have been impacted by severe child abuse.
As a result of our model of integrated practice, the following outcomes are being achieved: an estimated annual value of over half a million dollars in productivity improvements was achieved in just one of our working teams at the centre; prevention and intervention for vulnerable pregnant women has decreased child protection involvement from 31% to 17%; physical and sexual abuse exam time has been reduced by up to 50%; and therapy wait times were reduced from eight months to one and a half months, and a child only tells their story once.
Our leading practice and strong partnerships have positioned the centre to support research that will help us better understand and continually improve services for child abuse survivors, their families, and communities. Research allows us to connect the dots and understand the true impact of child abuse in our society. We have proposed research partners: the Cumming School of Medicine of the University of Calgary, the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and the Willamette University College of Law to establish a multidisciplinary, longitudinal study of sex abuse survivors. Participants will be evaluated clinically and from a neurobiological perspective over a 15-year period. This study would be the most comprehensive study of sex abuse survivors conducted with global relevance.
Financial support to conduct the study is needed. We respectfully ask the federal government to consider supporting this research. It is estimated that over 15 years the projected cost would be $23 million, or $1.5 million per year. By taking action now and supporting this research, the federal government can position Canada as a global leader, and most importantly, accelerate our efforts to end child abuse and support the full recovery and reintegration of survivors into their communities as productive and engaged citizens.
Thank you.