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A cry for help Kelly and Owen Bradley hope they’ve found the right place to help their 11-year-old daughter control her bipolar disorder. But they’re still calling on the government to bridge a youth mental health services gap in Greater Victoria Daniel Palmer
To shed light on this gap in care, the Bradleys created an online petition that calls on B.C. Health Minister Margaret The parents of a child with a mental MacDiarmid to fund acute crisis beds health disorder are pleading with the for children, staffed with dedicated child province to recognize a gap in critical care. psychiatrists and specially trained nurses. Owen and Kelly Bradley’s 11-year-old It’s a tall order, but the couple says too daughter – whom they asked not be many families are suffering in silence. Since named – has bipolar disorder, an illness starting the petition, families “from all over marked by mood swings B.C.” have contacted them that sometimes lead to with similar complaints of a “As soon as they violence. She was nine when gaping hole in the system. get the results back she received the diagnosis. The decision to speak (from brain scans), they publicly about a child’s On Jan. 2, her behaviour become so erratic that with mental health discharge her, because struggle police took her to Victoria doesn’t come easy. it’s a mental health General Hospital under the “These families deal with Mental Health Act. She spent issue.” stigma. So do the patients, four days there in a safe and the care providers – Kelly Bradley on her room. and child psychiatrists,” daughter’s treatment “The crisis team can says Dr. Clare Wood, a come to your house, but child psychiatrist with the if a person is violent toward herself, they Vancouver Island Health Authority. tell you to call 911 and take her to the Wood asserts child and adolescent hospital,” Kelly says, sitting in the living psychiatry and children’s health is room of their Fernwood home. under-serviced, a problem she says has The Bradleys asked for help, knowing worsened over her 15 years of working their daughter was in need of serious with Island families. “We don’t have an psychiatric and medical support. inpatient acute crisis program. We need Doctors called Jack Ledger House, a one that’s funded and staffed, including 13-bed children’s mental health facility child and adolescent psychiatry. The space in Saanich that serves all of Vancouver at Victoria General Hospital is inadequate Island. But a weeks-long wait list meant for this purpose.” the Bradleys had to bring their daughter Wood’s job is made more difficult by home. the fact children’s mental health and Since then, the girl’s behaviour has psychiatric services are spread between landed her back in VGH on two other the Ministry of Children and Family occasions. Doctors had no choice but to Development and the Ministry of Health. discharge her again after they ruled out The result is a lack of co-ordination and physical symptoms. “As soon as they get fragmented service delivery, she says. the results back (from brain scans), they PLEASE SEE: discharge her because it’s a mental health VIHA moving to address problem, Page A8 issue,” Kelly says. News staff
Daniel Palmer/News staff
Kelly and Owen Bradley stand on the steps of their Fernwood home. The couple has been pleading with the province and Vancouver Island Health Authority to address what they call a gap in mental health care for their 11-year-old daughter. Their online petition at change.org, calling on Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid to fund acute crisis beds for children, staffed with dedicated child psychiatrists and specially trained nurses, has attracted input from families all across B.C.
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