Children’s representative calls for youth mental-health system in BC

VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – The suicide of a boy more than two years ago has now prompted a call for action from BC’s child and youth advocate, who says that 17-year-old deserved better from those who were supposed to be taking care of him.

“These gaps need to be filled so that other children and families do not find themselves in similar circumstances going forward,” explains Bernard Richard, BC’s representative of Children and Youth. “If this sounds familiar, it is because you have heard it from this office before.”

Richard’s report investigates the death of a teen identified by the pseudonym Joshua who died in July 2015 after jumping from a construction crane on the grounds of the BC Children’s Hospital where he had been staying for 122 days.

A review of his death found there were significant gaps in the health system, which Richard says need to be corrected or more children risk falling through the cracks.

“This report contains only one recommendation: the creation of a comprehensive mental health system for children and youth that can competently cover the wide gamut of mental health care needs from prevention and family support to emergency and accute care, to step down services.”

The report says Joshua began showing signs of mental illness when he was just two years old but he and his family didn’t receive adequate early and long-term help as his illness escalated into his teens.

It says previous suicide attempts led the teenager to be hospitalized, but he was kept in an adult psychiatric ward because facilities more appropriate for youth were lacking.

Richard says BC’s new Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions should take the lead in developing a system that offers full mental health services for children and youth that meet the same standards of physical health services.

BC’s new Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Judy Darcy, has already promised to meet Richard’s demand to develop a more comprehensive system within two years.

“We need to wrap services around youth who are struggling like Joshua did, providing the ongoing, continuing supports that families need and deserve,” Darcy said in a release. “We fully accept the recommendation in the representative’s report, which aligns with one of my mandate priorities assigned by the Premier, to create a mental health and addiction strategy to guide the transformation of BC’s mental-health-care system.”

She added a priority area in this work is youth services, including the early identification of mental-health issues.

“While the representative acknowledges that it’s not possible to know whether better services would have prevented this tragedy, he does say a comprehensive system would have given this family a better chance.”