Kinark Family Services - An Opinion

What is the Mandate of Kinark Family Services?

I admit openly that I am often confused. Today is one such day. Let me explain...

In September 2011, my niece came to stay with me for the year. She had many, many issues, and I thought she could benefit from some counselling and support. The Kinship worker at York Region CAS, recommended that I contact Kinark. I was hopeful that they could provide some counselling for my niece.

Three lengthy telephone interviews were involved. I provided all of the background information for my niece, and comprehensive explanations of the situation and problems. My time is valuable, but this was an important thing to do - to get some help for my niece.

No advice or support was ever given. Months and months went by. I just got off the phone with Kinark - they'd like to know how things are going. I asked where the support was. Seems I'm still on a waiting list.

Over the past several months, I've spoken to other parents who have attempted to get service from Kinark for their children. All of them told me they'd had the same experience. Nothing provided.

So I started searching, because I was curious to know exactly what their mandate is. Here is the description they gave Revenue Canada for their charitable foundation status:

The Kinark Foundation advances the social and emotional well-being of children and youth by raising funds and creating awareness in support of Kinark Child and Family Services and other organizations focusing on children's mental health. The Foundation makes grants to a broad range of initiatives including research, pilot projects, services for children, youth and families, collaborative community-based projects, and equipment/capital needs.

Digging a little deeper, I find that most of their efforts revolve around fundraising. Now, I admit to being ignorant about their other "initiatives", but it seems to me not many people are getting services. I plan to find out which of our government agencies provides funding to them.

Maybe I've had a bad day, maybe I'm frustrated and out of patience. My "perception" is that this agency collects funds to maintain a database of information and then provides various reports. That seems to be their prime directive. So, all the time I, and other parents, have spent on the phone with them, is just going to fill up their database with information, and add to their numbers on their reports so they can justify receiving more funds. After all, they have an enormous number of "clients" on their database. How many of these clients actually received any services though? If I needed to vent about the situation with my niece, there are a number of friends I could have called, and none of them would have used my tax dollars to talk to me.

Is this an agency that exists solely for the purpose of creating jobs for people? After all, they have to pay those people who talk on the phone, and that person who maintains their database, and that person who runs the reports they use as justification for more funding.

As a society, we can't afford the luxury of these "make work" projects anymore. There are children out there who, for whatever reason, need help. Maybe the funding given to this agency should be redirected to an organization that actually has front-line workers out there in the field. Perhaps the various CAS societies? Wouldn't that be a better use of our tax dollars?

If anyone reading this has had a different experience, I'd really like to hear about it. I'd also like to hear if you share my frustration and confusion. Why is the CAS and other agencies referring families and children to Kinark, when there's really no services provided by them? Have we become a nation of bean counters, where all that's important is counting up the number of children with mental health issues, as opposed to actually providing counselling and to them and their families?


This work by Suzette Leeming is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License.