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Proper training for workers recommended at fatality inquiry |
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Written by Delon Shurtz
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Monday, January 19 2009, 10:48 PM |
More than six years after Greg and Karen Collier’s daughter was killed on the job, the Raymond couple has finally found a degree of closure.
It came in the form of a report, released Monday, which provides more than two dozen recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths. The report stems from a public fatality inquiry, which began in November 2007 and concluded in July 2008.
“It’s over, that’s the closure,” Karen said Monday.
However, the couple must now prepare for a parole hearing later this year for the man who, at age 14, killed their daughter while the two were hiking through the river valley in Lethbridge.
“We have to put our lives on paper again,” Karen said.
Sharla Collier, a 20-year-old youth worker, was killed Nov. 16. 2002 when she was working alone with the teen, who suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and was a client of a group home in Lethbridge. The teen repeatedly struck Sharla in the head with a large branch, then sexually assaulted her. During an earlier trial, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was convicted as an adult to serve a mandatory life sentence.
A publication ban was placed on the teen’s name during the fatality inquiry.
Judge Lloyd Malin said workers should be trained in the psychology and behavioural problems of those under their care and be familiar with safety regulations. As well, youth workers should be physically capable of handling those in their care and female workers shouldn’t be left alone with sexually obsessed young men.
“Even if all of the recommendations had been implemented before Nov. 2002, there is simply no assurance that the fatality would have been avoided since, as with most violent criminal acts, its incidence and the perpetrator were unpredictable,” Malin wrote in the report.
While Karen said she hopes agencies implement the recommendations, she wishes the judge could have recommended the government spend more money on educating people about FASD and the risks of drinking alcohol while pregnant. She said there were 3,000 babies with FAS born in Canada the year her daughter was killed, a number that has risen to 4,000, and “it’s going to get worse.”
Even without Malin’s recommendations, Karen said Sharla’s death could have been avoided given the teen’s sexual pre-occupation, of which the operators of his group homes were well aware.
“Those should have been red flags.”
Malin noted many people during the inquiry testified wages for care workers are not sufficient to attract enough male workers, but he was unable to make any recommendations regarding financial matters because they were outside the scope of the inquiry.
However, Sharon Lopatka, spokeswoman for Alberta Children and Youth Services, said the ministry has allocated to contracted agencies $102 million the past four years to address staffing “challenges.”
Lopatka said the ministry will review the inquiry report and its recommendations, but it’s the responsibility of the various agencies to implement the recommendations. The ministry, on the other hand, must ensure the agencies with which it contracts, are accredited and meeting provincial regulations.
In a statement, Dave Adams, executive director of Lethbridge Family Services, which employed Sharla, said the agency “fully embraces all the recommendations from the report and can ensure our employees, clients and community that all these measures have been implemented. . .
“This traumatic event started long before that fateful day in November and serves to remind all of us that alcohol consumption during pregnancy should not occur. Fetal alcohol disorders are a disease that are 100 per cent preventable, and we encourage that this message continue to be shared in our society.”
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