Islanders take demands to the Coles Building
Health minister under fire about closures of Unit 9, PUCCs in Hillsborough Hospital
On an August evening, Courtney Crosby found herself seeking help from P.E.I.’s mental health system for the first time.
Crosby, who has a lengthy history advocating for family members facing challenges with mental health and addictions, said she experienced her own mental health crisis that evening.
But, after arriving at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital with a friend, she was told there were no mental health services available at that time. The psychiatric urgent care clinic at the nearby Hillsborough Hospital was closed for the night.
Instead, she was told to consider jail.
"It was suggested that if my friend was concerned for my safety, she could take me to jail for the night until the urgent care clinic in Hillsborough opened the following day," Crosby said.
"This may come as news to our government, but Islanders face mental health crises past the hours of 7 p.m. when (the psychiatric urgent care clinic) closes."
Crosby added she later travelled to Summerside to visit a psychiatric clinic at the Prince County Hospital, where she received “exceptional care”.
Crosby told the story to a crowd of about 75 people outside of the Coles Building in Charlottetown on Tuesday night. The rally outside the legislature was organized to draw attention to the experiences of individuals seeking help with mental health and addictions on P.E.I.
Crosby expressed frustration at the decision by healthcare administrators to close the Unit 9 psychiatric unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital last spring to provide for excess capacity for potential
COVID-19 patients. The Mount Herbert provincial addictions treatment facility also discharged patients.
“We have lost many lives to overdose and suicide since the pandemic, and not one life has been lost due to COVID19,” Crosby said.
“Although I know the seriousness of COVID-19, I am left wondering: what is the real pandemic here in P.E.I?”
In a calm, almost conversational tone, Matt Dunn spoke about his experiences attempting to access mental health and addiction services while living homeless. He described being “interrogated” by a mental health crisis nurse, who suggested he was “fishing for a place to stay”.
“It made me feel terrible. Then it really gave me a lot of distrust with the system and the nurses in there,” Dunn said.
Dunn also said he was recently denied access to the transition unit at Mount Herbert to seek treatment for addiction issues.
“Because I went to the transition unit in the last year, they’re not (able) to take me this year,” Dunn said in a speech.
“So, I guess I have to wait until next year to sober up.”
The darkly comic line drew scattered laughter.
“That was a bad joke,” Dunn shrugged.
Tuesday night’s rally came after Health Minister James Aylward has faced repeated criticism in the legislature for his role in decisions concerning mental health and addictions.
“What input did you provide in the decision to empty the transition beds at Mount Herbert and then close access to mental health care at Unit 9?” Liberal MLA Hal Perry asked Aylward on Friday.
Aylward said both Unit 9 and Mount Herbert were closed in the early days of the pandemic based on decisions by the Joint Response Team, a Health P.E.I. team that led decision-making in the early months of the pandemic.
“As the minister of health and wellness, I’m ultimately responsible and I take that responsibility extremely serious,” Aylward said.
On Tuesday, the questions continued. Aylward was asked by Opposition leader Peter Bevan-Baker if he would commit to keeping Unit 9 open in the event of a second wave of COVID-19.
“I can’t guarantee anything,” Aylward said.
“We have no idea what the second wave could look like, potentially, how impactful it could be on our health-care system,” Aylward said.
Aylward added he trusted health-care professionals, like chief public health officer Dr. Heather Morrison and Dr. Heather Keizer, chief of mental health and addictions services with Health P.E.I., in their recommendations.
During a September meeting of the standing committee on health and social development, Keizer told MLAs that the opening of the psychiatric urgent care clinics at Hillsborough Hospital has helped cut wait times for psychiatric care wait times substantially and had yielded high levels of patient satisfaction.