An interim report on youth suicide prevention and mental health services has been released by New Brunswick’s Child and Youth Advocate.
The review was ordered by Health Minister Dorothy Shephard in March shortly after 16-year-old Lexi Daken died by suicide.
The Fredericton area girl spent hours at the Chalmers Hospital trying and failing to access mental health services.
Shephard later met with Lexi’s family and acknowledged the province must fix a broken system.
Child and Youth Advocate Norm Bossé calls for expanding community-based walk-in clinics, ongoing training for emergency room staff and an improved mental health support curriculum in schools.
He recommends developing a dedicated system of phone, app, text and web-based supports and improving services for indigenous youth on and off First Nations communities.
He also thinks the province should take swift measures to improve interim psychological and psychiatric treatment in hospitals.
“You present yourself with a mental health crisis as a youth or a youth with a parent. There is a separate room now. There would be a psychiatric nurse on. She has a billing number and can consult with a psychiatrist right away,” Bossé said in an interview Thursday.
Bossé also called on the government to start planning right away for a better curriculum in schools to support wellness and mental health in the post-pandemic period.
He said he has heard from parents who say their child is depressed.
“We know why. They are not with their peers. They are not socializing. They are at home. I suspect I’d be depressed too,” Bossé said.
Bossé said having schools open in the fall will improve everyone’s mental health, including teachers.
“The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has to put a focus on education training,” he said.
Bossé said he has also heard frustration from community workers offering programs in places where the kids who need help live.
“‘We have programs here but we can get the funding or the funding is spotty and it doesn’t help us’. We want to talk to government about that,” he said
Ten public consultations have been held and over 700 youth and more than 3,000 adults have completed an online survey.
Formal written submissions will be accepted online until June 25.
A final report is due in late July.
(With files from Tamara Steele)
