Yappy Mutt Goes Public

I write to you today to bring your attention to some of the serious flaws in Canada’s Health Care regulations which govern the treatment of the mentally ill. I’m currently lobbying government to take immediate steps to make legislate improvements.

My daughter was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 16 and since that time has undergone the process of healing through a structured treatment program. In order for her to heal she must have 12 hours of sleep a night, take her medications, stay away from drugs and alcohol, and regularly see her Councillors and Doctors. Even by following all of her treatments, her road to recovery will take a minimum of 9 years and possibly longer. This means in order to get well my daughter will need to adhere to a structured treatment program until she is at least 25 years old. Any relapse within that time will inevitably lengthen her recovery time.

If early childhood psychosis is properly treated, it is very possible for people who have schizophrenia to lead productive and healthy lives without suffering any mental illness issues. Because of flaws in the current Health system, which accords the same human rights to mentally ill adults as it does to those who are not, now that my daughter is 19 I am no longer able to legally intervene when my daughter refuses or is unable to maintain the structured care that has until now kept her on the road to recovery.

As a 19 year old the law states that my daughter can reject treatment, medications, advice from doctors and councillors and nothing can be done to impose treatment on her until she becomes a danger to herself and/or others. I believe this to be a very serious lapse in the law. It would make eminently more sense to have a legal mechanism in place that allows caregivers the right to impose a mandatory treatment as soon as the obvious signs of mental digression begin to appear, well before they become dangerous.

According to the law my daughter has never been considered well enough to sign a power of attorney which would give me the right to act on her behalf and in her best interest. Given this scenario how can the law then award this very same daughter full right to her own mental care merely because she has turned 19?

The law gives me the right to protect my daughter’s money from predatory exploitation but I don’t have the ability to keep her away from criminal elements that might sell her drugs or give her alcohol, nor can I impose any kind of curfew on her. Medication for the mentally ill does not work if the patient is stressed, does not get enough sleep or if street drugs and alcohol are used. Currently my daughter is under the influence of a well known, 32 year old local drug dealer who tells her that she acts fine and doesn’t need to take medication. He encourages her to drink and even buys alcohol for her. Under the law I have no way to keep her safe from him by putting a restraining order on him even if he is seriously endangering her health – only my impaired thinking daughter can do this. How can it possibly be that protecting her money is more important under the law than protecting her mental health and wellbeing?

My daughter’s councillors, doctors and entire family have all noted that she has regressed by at least 50% from the period prior to her turning 19 when structured care was constant. All agree that she needs help now to keep her from reaching the danger state. The law which gives my daughter the right to decide her own treatment does not in any way recognize my daughter’s inability to understand when she is digressing and needs care. She cannot even tell you what the signs of digression are! Surely preventing her mental health from deteriorating to a dangerous state should have as equal a status under the law as do her human rights.

I have called 26 blue page services and NOT one could help me. Generally the answer has been that because is she is an adult only she can make decisions about her care.

If my daughter was to smoke a joint it has the potential to send her over the edge -ONE JOINT. That is a bomb just waiting to happen. That is my fear. There is often a rage or violent element to mental illness, but in most cases can be avoided and prevented if the patient is properly adhering to their treatment regimen. Believe me I have already been down this road with my daughter.

At the end of the month if my daughter is still deteriorating I will be forced to pressure the doctor to have my daughter committed. It is inevitable that she will be sent to the Penticton Hospital but this is not a hospital that is safe for her! She has already escaped from there three times. She was 16 the first time she was admitted to Penticton Hospital and she thought her father and I had placed her in jail and the nurses were feeding her poison. After one of her escapes she arrived back home barefoot and in her pajamas from a distance that is 45 minutes by car. This is not acceptable!

I know that if my daughter is committed to this hospital again, that it will be a terrifying experience with the capacity to haunt her for rest of her life. She will hate her parents and the caregivers who are trying to help her. How, I ask you, is this helping her to understand and deal with a mental illness she will have for the rest of her life!!!

Have we not seen enough recently of what can happen when the mentally ill are making health care decisions they are truly incapable of making?

* Aug 18, 2009 Grand Forks BC – 42 year old mentally ill woman stabs and kills 12 year old autistic boy. Her Neighbour stated she was withdrawn and not making eye contact. (This is a danger sign for anyone with mental illness and intervention should have occurred long before she reached this state.)
* July 31, 2008
Man decapitated by mentally ill man on Greyhound bus.

I would like to propose the following solutions that you might consider as one who has power to introduce legislation:

1. There needs to be a mechanism under the law to impose mandatory treatment in cases when patients are not adequately addressing their mental state and signs of deterioration are clear.
2. There needs to be a mechanism under the law to allow caregivers to protect the mentally ill from predators who lure them into criminal activity or other behaviour that works at odds with their medical treatment
3. There needs to be an authoritative body that can monitor a mentally ill child, well before they are turned loose at the age of 19, in order to make an assessment of how well they will be able to make mental health decisions on their own. If the patient is deemed to be incapable of maintaining treatments that will prevent mental digression without supervision then the law could provide for a Power of Attorney to be awarded to a responsible parent or other caregiver to ensure that treatment continues unabated as long as required. With periodic reviews the patient’s rights could be carefully balanced against the need for proper and sustained care.
4. Community centres are desperately needed where mentally ill patients can receive treatment in a more home-like environment close to family and friends. Here in Osoyoos the Sage Brush Building, owned by Interior Health would lend itself perfectly to such a facility.

Please help give me the legislative tools I need to help my adult/child seek and obtain the treatment she desperately needs in a facility close to home. All we want is to care for her and support her through this tragic illness that has already robbed her of 3 years of her life. I want to be able to protect my daughter from criminal activity, drinking on the beach and well away from drug users and dealers. I want her safe from predators. She is ill and cannot protect herself from any of these things and it is breaking my family’s heart.

We cannot have any of this for my child, without changes to government polices