MP talks about loss of his daughter
David Sweet wants to keep dialogue on mental health going
Local MP David Sweet has several reasons for going public about his daughter Lara taking her own life after struggling with mental illness.
“One, to diminish the stigma associated with mental illnesses and its challenges,” he said “and two, to highlight that Lara was a champion of helping people. She was the perfect example of a wounded healer. She reached out to people all the time.”
Sweet, the Conservative MP for Glanbrook-Flamborough, said he also wants to share Lara’s story “so that people in similar circumstances know they are not alone” and are encouraged to talk to someone and seek help.
“We love Lara, so we wanted to honour her legacy and help her live on,” he added.
Lara took her own life on Aug. 11 at age 23.
She had mental-health issues, profound ADHD, and drug addictions including crack cocaine, although she had been drug free for the past seven months.
Sweet and his wife Almut adopted Lara when she was an infant. She was the daughter of Sweet’s brother Paul, who “struggled all of his life with mentalhealth issues at a time when the pediatric psychiatry trail was just being blazed,” Sweet said.
Lara left home at 15, and lived in Hamilton on her own before moving to Oshawa where she died.
“She was in Oshawa for the last two years. That’s where she got control of her life … she started working and was clear of drugs,” he said. Sweet figures she must have relapsed after seven months free of addiction, but he is still waiting on the full coroner’s report, he said.
At her funeral, the family asked that donations be made in her name to McMaster Children’s Hospital and the Canadian Mental Health Association, two organizations that tried to help her.
When Lara was diagnosed with profound ADHD, she was prescribed Ritalin, but stopped taking it when she was 14.
“She felt just taking it brought on a stigma,” Sweet said. “It was something that really bothered her.”
Sweet stood up in the House of Commons in mid-September to talk about Lara and her struggle with mental health that began at birth.
He asked all the MPs to “be mindful of those who struggle with mental health” and encouraged the federal government to continue to fund the Canadian Mental Health Commission and the public to be generous to the Canadian Mental Health Association and others committed “to fight for mental wholeness.”
“Lara was a high energy extrovert … she would act out very boldly.” Lara was six when the family sought help. “We had to learn a lot about behaviour and how to help and manage it as well … they said don’t ask why kids like Lara were doing this (behaving a certain way) because they don’t know why. People have to understand this more.”