“Why didn’t I matter?” That’s the question the family and friends of Kye Ball want answered. The 16-year-old from Indian Head, Sask. battled depression and bipolar disorder when he was alive.
“Kye was brought to a youth centre in Regina, where he got really good care,” Wanda Ball, Kye’s mother, explained.
“He was to stay for 30 days, but he ended up staying for 90. His social worker was supposed to see him on a weekly basis. It was over 30 days before her first visit, which of course made Kye feel unwanted.”
After 90 days, Kye was sent home.
“About a month later, Kye took his life, so he wasn’t ready to come home,” Wanda said.
Wanda spent three years trying to get help for Kye. Now, she is calling on increased support for mental health.
“Youth need more than medication, they need to be able to meet with a psychologist immediately and not put on a waiting list,” she told a crowd of around 150 people on the steps of the Legislative Building.
Wanda’s story was followed by person after person, sharing similar stories of how they or a loved one fell through the cracks of the health-care system.
Among them was Todd Guggenmoss of Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask. His 17-year-old son Lane took his own life 18 months ago.
After his son’s death, Guggenmoss spoke with his MLA Don McMorris and then Health Minister Dustin Duncan about mental health issues.
“We hoped that with Lane’s story and Lane’s suicide the changes would be made, and we could say no more families need to go through what we went through,” Guggenmoss said.
“But they did, and there’s another family out there right now that’s going down that same road. The end will be the same. They will lose a child to suicide.”
Health Minister Jim Reiter knows something has to change.
“I’m not going to sugar coat it; we want to do better,” he said.
Currently, five per cent of the $5.2 billion health budget goes to mental health. Minister Reiter wants to see that grow to seven per cent.
“To provide more services, you need to hire more people, you need to do more programming, there’s certainly a cost to that and it’s not the kind of thing not the kind of thing you can simply do overnight,” Reiter said.
The health ministry is awaiting increased funding from the federal government dedicated to mental health.
“Unfortunately it’s going to take a little bit of time, and it does take money. As you try to provide more resources money’s a factor. It just always is,” Reiter said.
Documenting the Issue
Todd Rennebohm lives a block away from the Ball’s and organized Friday’s rally. He is also in the process of making a currently untitled mental health documentary series he plans to publish on Youtube.
Part of the inspiration for the project comes from his own struggles in finding help for his depression and addiction.
“I drove myself to the [Regina} General Hospital from Indian Head. I just assumed when I got to the hospital they would admit me,” he explained.
“I admitted to the psych nurse that I was suicidal. They just recommended that I talk to a therapist, take my meds, and kind of sent me on my way.”
A year later, Rennebohm said he received the help he needed, only after he attempted suicide.
“It tells me that the system is broken. Not only is it completely underfunded it’s just not efficient.”
Rennebohm hopes to have the documentary online at the end of May.
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