Children’s representative calls for youth mental health system in B.C.
VICTORIA — A 17-year-old boy who took his own life on the grounds of 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 at the BC Children’s Hospital where he had been staying for 122 days.
The review of his death found there were significant gaps and lack of co-ordination in the health system, which Richard said 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 long-term help as his illness escalated into his teens.