New Brunswick’s child and youth advocate has made 10 early recommendations on improving mental health services and suicide prevention among youth in the province.
They are contained in an interim report released Thursday as part of a review following the death of Fredericton teenager Lexi Daken.
She died in February, days after waiting more than eight hours at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital seeking help for a mental health crisis, help she never received.
One recommendation called for ongoing training and development among emergency room staff to better equip them to care for youth who are suicidal.
“There was a system whereby there should have been a psychiatric nurse on the units in emergency rooms at hospitals 24 hours a day,” New Brunswick Child and Youth Advocate Norman Bossé told Global News.
“What we learned is that those psychiatric nurses were being pulled back to the psychiatric ward rather than being right there, available.”
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Bossé said the hospital has “realigned” its emergency room to better respond to youth dealing with mental health challenges, including a psychiatric nurse in a separate room.
The report said Bossé and his team spoke extensive to the Daken family and others as they gathered information. He said more than 4,100 people responded to an online survey.
Chris Daken, Lexi’s father, said it was important for their family to tell her story.
“We kind of explained to them the situation and the care and the channels that were kind of followed with Lexi’s mental health care,” Chris Daken said. “And we kind of showed the cracks that she fell through. So they’re kind of aware of that.”
Other recommendations in the report include:
- Funding of mental health awareness and education in schools and communities
- Re-establish and maintain funding of ACCESS Open Minds community walk-in clinics around the province
- Establishment of a post-COVID recovery curriculum for all grade levels.
- Funding of an independent review by New Brunswick First Nations experts of Indigenous children and youth mental health services
“The themes were pretty similar no matter what community we were speaking with,” Bossé said. “And the theme in the communities was, ‘We need programs to help our youth here, in our communities. Not everyone has to go to a hospital.'”
“My hope is that the government will make the changes based on the recommendations that the child and youth advocate have presented them,” Chris Daken said.
Bossé said the report marks the halfway point of his team’s overall review. A final report is due later in the summer.
Bossé’s mandate as child and youth advocate set to end July 31st, although he said he is committed to staying on until the review is complete.
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