Access to health and social services adapted to their needs of children improves their quality of life and helps ensure their fundamental rights are respected. However, many research studies suggest that vulnerable children and their families do not always make optimal use of available resources. The reasons for this are both contextual (e.g. nature of public policies, organization of care, distribution of resources, layout of the physical environment) and individual (e.g. limited financial resources, isolation, beliefs and cultural norms, perception of services). More rarely examined is how effectively the services offered actually meet the needs of this population. For instance, in the area of child protection, we observe that services for abused and neglected children are still often based on a perception of needs that fails to take into account research data on service efficacy.

This panel, facilitated by M. John Parisellaand composed of Dr Nicolas Steinmetz— Chair Emeritus of the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation, Nico Trocmé— Director and Professor at the School of Social Work at McGill University, and Dr Gilles Julien — Clinical Director, Founding President and CEO of the Fondation du Dr Julien answer the following questions :

1. What do we know about the efficacy of current health and protection services for vulnerable children in Quebec?