New Brunswick’s health minister calls the recent suicide of a Fredericton teenager heartbreaking and has expressed sympathies to her family and friends.
Sixteen-year-old Lexi Daken died last week after her family says she spent hours at the Chalmers Hospital trying and failing to access mental health services.
Dorothy Shephard has met with Lexi’s family and she acknowledged the province must fix a broken system.
“I spoke with Horizon Health Network senior officials to discuss how we can address crisis care in our emergency rooms and have asked them to report back to me by the end of the month.”
Shephard also spoke with Norm Bosse, the province’s child and youth advocate, to review services for mental health crisis care.
Green Party leader David Coon wants the Department of Health to conduct a public inquiry into the handling of suicidal youth by the province’s emergency departments.
“New Brunswick’s health care system failed Lexi Daken and it has failed other young people with suicidal thoughts. Like Lexi, other teens who have taken their lives thought that by visiting the ER they would be admitted to a safe place where they would not be able to harm themselves and be treated. Instead, they were sent home where they took their own lives,” said Coon.
“There needs to be an inquiry to get to the bottom of this systemic problem in health care. In the short-term, steps should be taken immediately to add 24-hour emergency mental health services to the mental health walk-in clinics being established around the province,” said Coon.
Those clinics are part of the province’s recently announced five-year mental health action plan which the health minister believes will provide a solid foundation to build on going forward.
Shephard added the family seems determined to make a difference.
She noted how they have shared their anguish publicly and that can’t be in vain.