Parents of teen with mental illnesses say 'broken' N.L. health-care system failed them
CBC
WARNING: This story contains details of suicidal ideation.
On a windy day in October, a mother and father sit on a park bench somewhere on the Avalon Peninsula, looking frustrated and exhausted.
At only 13 years old, their daughter is dealing with several mental illnesses.
But instead of being admitted into a residential treatment facility, the girl is being failed, say her parents.
"This system is broken. It is utterly broken," the mother said.
CBC News has agreed to not identify the family to protect the underage girl.
She has been diagnosed with DMDD, short for disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, ADHD, an anxiety disorder and depression, and has been on medication for the past three years.
Symptoms of DMDD are severe temper outbursts several times a week and irritability or anger for most of the day, nearly every day, which makes daily activities difficult.
"This is not a child who's in a random state of depression. This is a child who has now resorted to thoughts of suicide on a daily basis," said the mother.
Yet the year-long fight to get help for the girl has been unsuccessful, the family says.
The fight began when the family moved to Newfoundland in April 2020.
Three months prior, in January 2020, they had put their daughter on the wait list for a psychiatrist at the Janeway children's hospital in St. John's.
A full year later, she finally got one.
"The only reason she got into a psychiatrist was the amount of times that we brought her to the Janeway. They finally gave in," said the mother.
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