Bringing the Children Home
Summary
The Bringing the Children Home research project is led by the Manitoba Inuit Association. This project will be focused on the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut with Inuit women. The project is about Inuit women's experiences of having their children taken or are concerned with having their children taken from them by child welfare workers when they are in Winnipeg to give birth or receive medical care for them or their children. The goal of the project is to learn how and why Inuit babies and young children are being apprehended in Manitoba to prevent this from happening in the future. Through interviews and focus groups/knowledge sharing activities with Inuit women from Nunavut who have their babies taken from them in Manitoba, we also aim to learn about how to better support Inuit women and families who travel to give birth or to seek medical care for themselves and their children. A survey will be made available online for those that may wish to participate in the Kivalliq more generally, and who may prefer that mode for providing their responses.
The project is also conducting a survey with service providers in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The survey aims to learn from nurses, police officers, and child welfare workers about the processes that influence the apprehension of Inuit children in Winnipeg healthcare and hospital settings. In the Kivalliq, the project will also be conducting interviews with service providers (such as nurses and child welfare workers) who have worked with mothers who have travelled to Winnipeg to give birth or seek medical care, to learn from their perspectives from within the health and social services.
Eligibility
Eligible gender: Male, Female, Transgender, Other
Eligible ages: 16 to 100
Accepts healthy participants: Yes
Inclusion criteria:
For interviews with mothers, focus groups/knowledge sharing activities, and the online survey we are seeking:
1) Inuit mothers (those who birth) who are 16 years of age or older, and
3) Have travelled to Winnipeg to give birth or seek medical care for a young child, and
2) Have had one or more children apprehended by the Manitoba child welfare system or felt at risk to have their child(ren) apprehended.
For interviews with service providers in Nunavut, we are seeking:
1) Individuals employed within the past 5 years within the health or social service sectors, or with the RCMP, in the Kivalliq; and
2) During this time, worked with Inuit mothers (as described above) who travelled to Winnipeg to give birth/seek medical care and experienced child apprehension or threat of child apprehension during the perinatal period.
For the survey occurring in Winnipeg, we are seeking:
Service Providers:
1) employees of the Winnipeg Police Service, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, OR a Manitoba child welfare authority; and
2) individuals who have worked in a healthcare/hospital setting with Inuit mothers who have travelled to Winnipeg to give birth or seek medical care for young children.
Exclusion criteria:
N/A.
Participate
Additional information
Contact information
Patricia Johnston, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, patricia.johnston1@ucalgary.ca; 780-492-7973
Principal investigator:
Patricia Johnston
Clinical trial:
No
REB-ID:
REB23-0137