![handle is hein.journals/wesjalals9 and id is 1 raw text is:
GOOD INTENTIONS, QUESTIONABLE RESULTS:
THE SHORTCOMINGS OF MANDATED REPORTING
FOR CHILD MALTREATMENT
KAYLA GORDON*
INTRODUCTION
Child maltreatment is a worldwide health and social problem that negatively
impacts the physical and psychological health of a significant number of children.' Each
Canadian jurisdiction has a statute regulating child and family services that imposes a
duty on all persons to report suspected child maltreatment.2 These statutes include fines
for professionals and officials working with children who fail to meet the duty to
report.3 Health care professionals are one such group perceived to be in a position that
allows them to sooner and better recognize signs of child maltreatment.4 Unfortunately,
health care professionals experience a number of difficulties in addressing child
maltreatment and meeting this duty to report. In practice, this has resulted in a troubling
trend of under-reporting child maltreatment.
To be clear, child welfare legislation is not to blame for the trend of under-
reporting. However, significant practical difficulties arise in the application of such
legislation in the context of the Canadian health care system. To solve under-reporting
problems in the health care context, changes need to be made in policy and practice.
This paper will outline the shortcomings of mandatory reporting legislation, with a
focus on the problem of under-reporting by health care professionals. Some potential
legal and practical solutions to mitigate these shortcomings are then discussed.
Copyright © 2019 by GORDON.
* Kayla Gordon is a recent JD graduate from Western University. She holds a BA in Criminology from
Western and has a professional background in public health research at McMaster University. She is
currently articling at a full-service law firm in Guelph with the goal of practising family law. Kayla would
like to extend her thanks to the Western Journal of Legal Studies team for their assistance in publishing
this article.
I Christine Wekerle, Resilience in the Context of Child Maltreatment: Connections to the Practice of
Mandatory Reporting (2013) 37:2-3 Child Abuse & Neglect 93 at 94; see generally Canadian Child
Welfare Research Portal, Child Abuse and Neglect (webpage), online: <cwrp.ca/child-abuse-neglect>.
2 The provincial and territorial child and family service statutes across Canada have very similar language
and goals when it comes to mandated reporting. To provide some focus, this paper will utilize the
legislation in Ontario-the first province to adopt mandatory reporting legislation.
' See e.g. Ontario's Child, Youth and Family Services Act, SO 2017, c 14, Sched 1, ss 125(5)-(9)
[CYFSA].
4 Under the CYFSA, the category of health care practitioners includes, but is not limited to, physicians,
nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and psychologists.
httns://doi.or2/lO.5206/uwoils.v9i 1.6826](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/wesjalals9&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most