Children’s representative calls for youth mental health system in B.C.

VICTORIA — A 17-year-old boy who jumped to his death from a construction crane at a children’s hospital in Vancouver didn’t get the mental health treatment he needed from the time he was two years old, says British Columbia’s representative for children and youth.

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

The 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.

The report says Joshua, whose mother was his primary caregiver after his parents separated and later divorced, began showing signs of mental illness when he was two years old, but he and his family didn’t receive adequate early and longterm help as his illness escalated into his teens.

“Joshua exhibited signs of serious mental health issues at an extremely young age,” the report says. “He was just two years old when his mother sought help from the Ministry of Children and Family Development because her son was hitting himself and banging his head on walls. He did not receive the early intervention services that may have altered his life trajectory.”

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, it says.

It recommends the new Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions implement a comprehensive system that offers a full continuum of mental health services for children and youth. It is the report’s only recommendation.

Despite the complexity of Joshua’s illness, Richard says he “believes that government can do better for its children than what it did for Joshua and his family.”

When Joshua’s health-care providers were planning to discharge him from the hospital, his mother wasn’t able to cope with him at home and officials struggled to find a safe place for him.

“The fact that he languished in hospital for four months, potentially losing what remaining hope he possessed while psychiatrists and social workers wondered where he could be safely placed, clearly shows that there is a dire need in B.C. for ‘step-down’ residential services — those that would enable a child or youth to ease out of a hospital setting and prepare for a return to their family and community,” the report says.

The report also criticizes the Ministry of Children and Family Development for prolonging its assessment of the family’s ability to meet the teen’s need, which in turn allowed the under-funded ministry to avoid the costs of providing appropriate services.