 Hi, I'm Wendy Locusta and I'm a Child Protection Mediator. The purpose of this video is to introduce you to mediation and help you decide whether mediation is the best option for you. The Ministry of Children and Family Development has several options available to work with families and mediation has become a very popular option because it helps build communication and it builds relationships with families so that they can be a part of the decision-making and developing a plan for their children. Mediators are neutral facilitators and they don't work for the Ministry. In this video, you're going to hear from Child Protection Mediators talking about what mediation is all about, what you could expect as a participant in mediation, and what the benefits could be for you. I hope through watching this video that you can make an informed decision and decide whether mediation is the best option for you. For me, mediation is a process of exploring pathways. Mediation is that the Ministry and the family feel that they can walk in the best interests of the child. In mediation, I think it's very important that the people realize that they're in the room to do things a different way than they may have done them in the past, either in their conversations with the social worker or in their conversations with the lawyer or their attendances at court. This is a place to do things differently. This is a place to sit down and really be able to feel safe and be able to discuss what the real problems are. We're here to mediate the future plan of care for the children. We're not here to mediate the past. We're not here to talk about who's to blame and who did what wrong and what phone call was made and those kinds of things. Although we will touch on the past a little bit, we're here to talk about what's going to happen from today forward. A parent can choose to have their counsel there. They can have good friends there. They could have a mental health worker there if they wanted or a family member. So all of these other people get to bring a different perspective and that gets, becomes part of the mix in the decision making. You know, family might come in and say, well, I don't see how we can resolve this because they want X and I want Y. And in the end, it's impressive how many options there are that people feel, yes, that could really work. So one of the first things that I talk to the family about when I meet with them is the fact that mediators are neutral, impartial, that we do not work for the Ministry of Children and Families. And we're not there to represent the Ministry of Children and Families. The mediators job is to support people to have the tough discussions. And that's typically what I say to parents that I'm working with. My job is to help you have the really tough discussion. And I don't think there's a discussion harder than what's going to happen to your children. Mediation can be an emotional process. I mean, when parents have had their children removed, they feel very emotional about that. And the social worker often has strong feelings about it as well, because they're responsible for the care and safety of the child. So yes, sometimes people do feel like blaming each other and being critical. And sometimes that happens in mediation. And it's the job of the mediator to make sure that people are respectful with each other and that we don't go down that road. Confidentiality is very important during mediation so that people feel safe to talk about these things and know that they're not going to be repeated outside of the room. There are some restrictions on confidentiality, and parties all need to be aware of this. And that will be talked with the parties in some detail. Agreements that get written during mediation quite often don't get bound by that confidentiality because they can be filed in court. The agreements reached at mediation usually set out everything that's been agreed at the mediation session. It can be a plan of care for the child. It can be a plan of action on the part of the parents. It can be about resources that the social worker is going to supply. It can be timelines around what's going to happen over the next two months, three months, six months. It can be agreements about access and visitation and all kinds of things. Everything that you've agreed on at the mediation should be captured in a mediation agreement, which is a written document that you take away with you. One of the great advantages of mediation is that it can be fast. We can come in, do a mediation while people are still waiting for a court date. And so you can actually have a situation where you'll know what is happening with the child. It can—situations can be resolved quicker than waiting for the court date. And people can start moving on with their lives, doing the things that are necessary to have those children return to them. As soon as there's the hint of a dispute, it's the best time to get into mediation if it's possible. And I really do mean that as early as possible because mediation can help to build the relationship to talk about the problems. But any other time during the course of the challenges that parents might be experiencing with their children is a good time to think about mediation. It can happen when there's a first report, when parents are first coming into intersections with the ministry. But it can also happen at the adoption phase. It can happen really anywhere along the time. It's where there's a dispute. So who is the decision maker in mediation? Well, really the group together is the decision maker. In order to come together, in order to structure how we talk, in order to have the topics decided, in order to decide where to go and how to develop a plan, it all requires that everybody get to a place where they can agree on what should happen. And the fascinating part is that it does work and it does happen in a very, very high percentage of the cases.