Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid has promised to explore the concerns of a Victoria family that is calling for better emergency mental-health care for children and youth in B.C.
MacDiarmid and senior staff from her ministry and the Ministry of Children and Family Development met with Kelly and Owen Bradley and other families to discuss the issue at the legislature on Tuesday. The Bradleys have gathered more than 36,000 signatures on a petition at change.org urging MacDiarmid to plug holes in the youth mental-health system.
The Bradleys say they started the petition after their 11-year-old daughter was repeatedly turned away from Victoria General Hospital despite being in obvious mental distress. The young girl has bipolar disorder and was in such crisis that the Bradleys had to get police help to transport her safely. In one instance, the Bradleys say, their daughter was discharged before they could even get to the hospital to consult with a physician.
A second family, which wishes to remain anonymous, reported a similar experience at Victoria General.
The Bradleys urged the minister to ensure that parents are consulted by emergency room physicians before making decisions about a child’s care, and that a psychiatrist always be involved in assessing children and youth in crisis.
MacDiarmid told reporters that if she were the parent of a teenager in crisis, she would expect to be part of a conversation about their care prior to a discharge. “It’s hard for me to understand why that wouldn’t be in place.”
But she said it would be difficult to require a psychiatrist’s involvement in every emergency room case involving a child or youth across the province. “Some of the communities are so small, realistically they wouldn’t be able to have 24-7 child psychiatry.”
She noted that the province is increasingly using videoconferencing and other technology to link patients and physicians in different locations, and said the ministry is working on provincewide standards for in-patient and emergency room psychiatric care.
“What we really talked about was how can we build standards around the province that will meet the needs around the province,” MacDiarmid said.
She promised to share that work with the Bradleys and their supporters.
“We will talk about what it is that we’re building and check in with them to find out how do they think that will work,” she said. “Their voice is important for us to listen to.”
Kelly Bradley said she was encouraged by the meeting. “I feel we were heard,” she said. “I feel that Minister MacDiarmid was very receptive. … She does recognize the gaps.”
Carol Todd, whose daughter Amanda took her life in Port Coquitlam in 2012, said she was pleased by how seriously government officials took the families’ concerns.
“We’ll have to see what happens out of it,” she said. “We’re going into some precarious election times, so it’s kind of hard for them to say definitively, ‘Yes, this will happen.’ And, of course, policy changes have to be in front of the legislature.
“But, overall, I was really happy that they listened. It’s more than sometimes you get from government.”
