The PMSS System and Wholistic Care's Role

In 2016 the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found that Canada discriminated against both First Nation children and communities through, in part, providing inequitable and insufficient funding for child and family services (“CFS”). As a result, Indigenous Services Canada (“ISC”) was ordered to rethink their entire First Nations Child and Family Services (“FNCFS”) Program almost from scratch to ensure that the wrongs of the past were not perpetuated into the future.

The process of reform has taken years, and there is still much left undone. However, one of the areas that ISC knew needed to be reformed right away revolved around the utter lack of support and services for young adults who have aged out of care. Because for decades these young adults who were trying to navigate their transition from childhood to adulthood – which is hard for even those with strong familial and communal support – were left more or less to fend for themselves.

To try to address this, in 2022 the FNCFS Program was expanded to include the funding of Post-Majority Support Services (“PMSS”) for those that were in care through their childhood and are still under the age of 26. Further, instead of PMSS support having to come from overworked and overstretched on-reserve CFS Agencies, ISC has allowed PMSS support to come from what are called “First Nations Authorized Service Providers” like Wholistic Care.

Note: The age of majority in New Brunswick is defined as 19. Therefore, PMSS support can be provided to all individuals that were in some kind of care (inclusive of alternative care arrangements) prior to turning 19. Further, if an individual was in care but made the voluntary decision to leave care before turning 19 (e.g., at age 17) then they would be eligible to receive PMSS support from that date forward (e.g., from ages 17-26).

What this all means in practice is that moving forward the transition into adulthood of an individual that’s been in care will be less overwhelming and less distressing because now there will be a support system in place to provide them as much (or as little) support as needed to navigate their late teens and the first half of their twenties.

In the end, the missions of both Wholistic Care and ISC’s newly developed PMSS system are the same: to ensure that all young adults who were previously in care have access to the services, support, and care that they need to realize their full potential and be self-sufficient by the time they turn 26.