A statement by the Green MLA for Saanich North and the Islands in the legislature on Monday. Today my family and the entire B.C. Green caucus team stands with our relatives in the Interior. We . . .
The MLA for Saanich North and the Islands is calling on the B.C. government to increase funding for Indigenous initiatives after the remains of 215 children were found buried at a former residential school site in Kamloops last week.
Introduced last year, the legislation would allow doctors to involuntarily hospitalize youth who overdose for up to seven days while they are stabilized, parents are contacted and a harm-reduction or treatment plan is put in place. “No one in this province should die from a poisoned drug supply, especially a child,” said Olsen. “But let’s not use this tragedy as cover for inadequate policy. “Restraining children against their will, as written in last summer’s Bill 22, would cause significant and disproportionate harm, especially to Indigenous youth.” Olsen called instead for proactive mental-health care that includes voluntary detox, day treatment and community residential treatment.
The two young women, who have struggled with mental health issues since their early teens, created a Facebook group in late February to raise concerns about the way patients are treated at Royal Jubilee Hospital’s Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES). The group, called PES: A Pathetic Excuse for Support, now has 1,800 members and more than 200 stories from former patients. It attracted the attention of Adam Olsen, MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, who raised the issue of emergency mental health in the legislature. Hale and Epp have since met with Premier John Horgan and Sheila Malcolmson, minister of mental health and addictions, telling them that patients don’t get the care and support they need and are belittled and mocked at PES. People seeking help are often discharged a couple of hours later feeling worse and having experienced more trauma.