Families seek intensive mental health supports for their children

With nowhere to turn to except each other, local families facing mental health challenges have banded together in hopes of finding long term and intensive mental health supports for their children.

“They don’t know how to treat our kids,” said Jeannie Gheller, a London area mother who has been searching for treatment for her daughter, whose self harm began at the age of 12. Now 18 years old, Mikayla is a patient at the London Health Sciences Centre children’s psychiatric ward.

Gheller said it’s not an appropriate spot, but there’s nowhere else for her to go.

“The hospital keeps telling us they’re an acute care facility. They are. They don’t have the resources, they don’t have the training to deal with our children. There’s nowhere for them to go,” said Gheller.

Dawn, whom we can’t identify, said her 12-year-old daughter was happy and healthy one year ago, but then her mental health took a turn for the worse. She too is at LHSC, where she has been placed under tight security.

“My child has been in an isolated room,” said Dawn. “She does have security at the door, or staffing at the door to ensure she’s safe, but also all the staff and co-patients are safe.”

While Dawn notes LHSC is doing all they can for her daughter, she says it's unfortunately not a treatment facility, which her daughter needs. 

Mt. Brydges area mother Kellysue McNeil said her 14-year-old daughter has been exposed to drugs, trafficked, and is prone to violence. She’s currently in juvenile detention, said McNeil.

“We are now presently at 15 criminal charges that she has accrued in the last six months. She’s presently in jail. We need help. And we need help now.”

The families say there is nowhere in Ontario to go for intensive mental health supports for their daughters. Furthermore, they say that even though they are children, and suffer from severe mental illness, legally they can make their own decisions surrounding their care.

“So she could attempt suicide six times in one day,” explained McNeil. “She’s in and out of the hospital like a revolving door because they don’t know what to do. And then, they can’t tell us anything. We show up and they say ‘I’m sorry she told us we’re not allowed to tell you what she’s done.’”

The families are calling on the provincial government to change legislation to give parents authority over medical care in cases like theirs. They want more funding into the system for psychiatric hospitals to have inpatient and outpatient care. And they want funding for more mental health professionals throughout the system.

With help from London West NDP MPP Peggy Sattler, they’re in the process of arranging a meeting with the provincial health minister, and minister of Children, Community and Social Services, in hopes of finding solutions.

They say they’re running out of time.

“If my daughter doesn’t get help tomorrow she’s going to die, that’s the bottom line,” said Gheller, as she fought back tears.