The Representative for Children and Youth ensures the agencies serving children and youth between the ages of birth and 19 are providing programs and services that meet the needs of this vulnerable population. 

 

The Representative also has a special interest in children and youth who are in government care, such as foster care or custody, or youth who have been remanded to an institutional or community setting. These children face greater challenges in terms of health outcomes, education outcomes and special needs. For instance, they are 17 times more likely to have intensive behavioural issues and/or a serious mental illness, and four times more likely to have a diagnosis of a mental disorder than young people in the general population.