My son attends the McHugh unit at Laurentian high school and is presently under specialized care at the Royal Ottawa Hospital. We are heavily dependent on the availability of specialized mental health services in the region.

Finding and gaining access to these services was a nightmare for us. My son's problems started about 2 years ago. Over the first six month period he made many trips to his family physician. His complaints were many but the doctor never suggested that he may have mental health issues. One night he was feeling so terrible that he said to me that either I take him to the hospital or he would call 911 himself!

We made the first trip to emergency. Within a two week period we made several more trips to emergency, coming away each time with a different diagnosis and no clear recognition of his problem. It was evident that he needed a psychiatric assessment but we were told that no psychiatrists were available! We would have to wait. My son was still suffering badly. His symptoms were increasingly severe and less manageable. I was making frantic calls to the hospital.  The hospital staff were sympathetic but it was a problem of lack of availability! 

His symptoms were getting worse. My concern was rising. I knew that whatever was wrong with my son, it was serious. We returned to the emergency room with the conviction that we were not leaving until my son received a consultation with a psychiatrist. Finally! We were granted access to a resident psychiatrist.  I have to question that if my son had been suffering from a severe physical ailment, instead of a psychiatric disorder, would access to specialized treatment have been so difficult?

Now we were in the system but under the care of the outpatient resident psychiatrist. My son was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder and he was given Epival. He became calmer but still symptomatic. Five weeks later we returned to emergency. This time, he was in a catatonic state. Either the Epival had become toxic to his system or he had been misdiagnosed and his illness had simply progressed.  For days he couldn't speak he could hardly swallow. He was hospitalized for three months, at times experiencing severe psychotic episodes. He was give a variety of different medications with little positive results. We were still unable to access to the "specialized psychiatric expertise" that he needed.

Over the past year thankfully, he is in the program that best suits his needs and in the care of a psychiatrist that has expertise with schizophrenia. We fought our way into the system. It is not a battle that anyone should be faced with.  It is being waged by those who are in crisis and need to reserve all of their energy to sustain their loved ones and themselves. 

There are huge cracks in the mental health care system for children and youth. It can be tragic for those who fall between the cracks. My story does not have a tragic ending because I was able to fight to get the right care for my son. What about the kids out there who don't have a parent who is able or willing to fight for them?  What happens to those kids?

The Ministry of Health must provide incentives to encourage psychiatrists to enter and remain in hospital child psychiatry. The government must respond to the increase in need for mental health care services.  More resources are needed from the Ministry of Health for specialized mental health services for youth.