New Brunswick Child and Youth Advocate Norm Bossé. (Image submitted)
New Brunswick’s child and youth advocate has made 10 interim recommendations to improve mental health services for the province’s youth.
The recommendations include ensuring emergency room staff are properly trained to deal with youth considering or who have attempted suicide — a recommendation Norm Bossé said should be implemented immediately.
A review of mental health services was announced in March after the death of Lexi Daken. The 16-year-old died by suicide after spending hours at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton trying to see a psychiatrist.
Bossé said the hospital has since changed its procedures in light of Daken’s death.
“You present yourself with a mental health crisis as a youth or a youth with a parent. There is a separate room now. There would be a psychiatric nurse on. She has a billing number and can consult with a psychiatrist right away,” Bossé said in an interview Thursday.
Bossé also called on the government to start planning right away for a better curriculum in schools to support wellness and mental health in the post-pandemic period.
He said he has heard from parents who say their child is depressed.
“We know why. They are not with their peers. They are not socializing. They are at home. I suspect I’d be depressed too,” Bossé said.
Bossé said having schools open in the fall will improve everyone’s mental health, including teachers.
“The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has to put a focus on education training,” he said.
Bossé said he has also heard frustration from community workers offering programs in places where the kids who need help live.
“‘We have programs here but we can get the funding or the funding is spotty and it doesn’t help us’. We want to talk to government about that,” he said
Bossé said most of the 10 recommendations include themes covered by other reports. The final report will be issued in late July.
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