‘Watching my daughter slip through the cracks’‏, a plea to Take Action!

My daughter was sent away from the hospital during a serious mental health episode. BC’s hospitals need to start providing emergency care for kids in crisis.

Last month, my 11 year old daughter Jeanette* was sent home from the hospital in the middle of a mental health crisis. She was hurting herself and her family. We begged the nurses to let her stay but still the hospital sent us away.

Jeanette has bipolar disorder.

Kids with bipolar can have sudden episodes of extreme depression or violence toward their families. They can try to hurt themselves and some even attempt suicide.

When Jeanette has an episode she knows she needs help — but three times this year Victoria General Hospital sent her away while she was still in crisis. That’s when my husband and I learned our hospital and almost all others in BC don’t provide emergency in-patient care for children having serious mental health crises.

After being sent away for the third time, our family came home and started this petition together on Change.org. Please support us in demanding that all BC’s hospitals start providing emergency, in-patient, mental health care for children like Jeanette.

Since we started our petition messages of support are pouring in. We’re learning thousands of families and children across the province are feeling abandoned by BC’s health system too. The good news is, we already know the government is listening.

After we launched our petition the BC Minister for Children acknowledged the challenges families like ours are facing. Next month, we’ll be meeting with other families from across the province to deliver your signatures to the Minister for Children and the Health Minister. With the provincial election coming up we need to act quickly while we have the government’s attention.

Please support us in demanding that all BC’s hospitals start providing emergency, in-patient, mental health care for children like Jeanette.

Click here to ‘sign our petition‘ to make sure the government commits to providing emergency mental health services for children in all BC’s hospitals.

Thank you,

Kelly Bradley

Victoria, B.C.

*Name changed to protect our daughter’s identity.