Mental Health Harm to Mothers When a Child Is Taken by Child Protective Services: Health Equity Considerations

Most recent available census data indicate 47,885 young people were living in foster care through the child protection system in Canada in 2011. Although placement of a child in foster care is a recognized factor influencing children’s health, behaviour, and social trajectories, very little has been documented about its consequences on the health and social outcomes of mothers. Mothers of these children represent a highly marginalized and growing population of caregivers, who are disproportionately poor, racialized, and likely to have also been in foster care as children. Among mothers, Indigenous women experience the highest rates of forced separation from their children, with census data showing Indigenous children comprising over 50% of all children aged 4 years and younger in foster care, while accounting for only 7% of the child population.