Drawing a line Colwood ready to take drivers to task at new stop signs. Page A5
COMMUNITY: West Shore celebrates literacy A3 NEWS: RCMP investigate reported rink assault A10 ARTS: Victoria artist connects with new album /A15
GOLDSTREAM Wednesday, January 23, 2013
A family’s cry for help
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he parents of a child with a mental health disorder are pleading with the province to recognize a gap in critical care. Owen and Kelly Bradley’s 11-year-old daughter – whom they asked not be named – has bipolar disorder, an illness marked by mood swings that sometimes lead to violence. She was diagnosed at age nine. On Jan. 2, her behaviour become so erratic that police took her to Victoria General Hospital under the Mental Health Act. She spent four days there in a safe room. “The crisis team can come to your house, but if a person is violent toward herself, they tell you to call 911 and take her to the hospital,” Kelly says, sitting in the living room of their Fernwood home. The Bradleys asked for help, knowing their daughter was in need of serious psychiatric and medical support. Doctors looked into Jack Ledger House, a children’s mental health facility in Saanich that serves all of Vancouver Island. Finding a weekslong wait list for one of the unit’s 13 beds, they told the Bradleys to bring their daughter home. Since then, the girl’s behaviour Daniel Palmer has landed her back in VGH on two other occasions. Doctors had Reporting no choice but to discharge her again after they ruled out physical symptoms. “As soon as they get the results back (from brain scans), they discharge her because it’s a mental health issue,” Kelly says. To shed light on this “gap in care,” the Bradleys created an online petition that calls on B.C. Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid to fund acute crisis beds for children, staffed with dedicated child psychiatrists and specially trained nurses. It’s a tall order, but the couple says too many families are suffering in silence. Since starting the petition, families “from all over B.C.” have contacted them with similar complaints of a gaping hole in the system. The decision to speak publicly about a child’s struggle with mental health doesn’t come easy. PLEASE SEE: VIHA moving to address the problem, Page A4
Kyle Wells/News staff
Young View Royal composer Jared Richardson’s spy movie type music will be featured as part of the Victoria Symphony’s 007 and Other Spies concerts starting Thursday.
Symphony tackles View Royal composer’s spy theme
I Kyle Wells Reporting
t doesn’t take a secret agent to discover the talent of young View Royal composer Jared Richardson. The Victoria Symphony has already cracked the case and will include a piece by Richardson in its 007 and Other Spies concert series, starting Thursday and running until Saturday, Jan. 26. Along with music from James Bond movies, Mission: Impossible, The Pink Panther and other spy classics, the symphony will perform Richardson’s original work “Double Agent. “It’s pretty amazing because this thing that was previously just inside your head … is going out and that is being transmit-
ted to like 60 people and they’re all doing what you wanted them to do,” Richardson said. “It’s just this amazing feeling because you have this power to have your ideas magnified so greatly.” Richardson, a second year music student at the University of Victoria, originally composed the piece for a friend’s short movie about two years ago. He went on to submit it to a Victoria Symphony score reading workshop, where it was selected as one of five pieces the symphony played and recorded for the composer. PLEASE SEE: First pro gig for young composer, Page A3
On the prowl again.