No help for suicidal teen

[SUCK IT]

I was reading through the news and thought this article would be of interest to some posters here. It shows in Canada they lack a robust private treatment industry and like many people argue here, treatment is only available at expensive clinical facilities with psychiatrists and professionals. This article points out the downside to having restrictions on the treatment industry and the impact it has on real families. It's definitely worth the read.

No help for suicidal teen
Canada lacks resources
By CHRIS DOUCETTE, QMI AGENCY
Last Updated: July 11, 2010 7:30pm

http://www.lfpress.com/news/canada/2010 ... 80186.html

OAKVILLE, Ont. – Joanne Genovy's youngest child was just 15 the first time she tried to end her life.

It's a memory etched in her mind -- receiving a call from a friend's mom alerting her Cassandra had "swallowed a bunch of pills," racing home frantically, not knowing if her daughter would be alive or dead when she got there.

That was 14 months ago and fortunately her daughter survived.

But Joanne has lived in fear every day since, wondering when her daughter will try to end her life again.

"We never thought she was capable of something like that," Joanne told QMI Agency recently.

Teen suicides have doubled in Canada since 1961 and rates here remain among the highest in industrialized nations. In Ontario, more than 50 teens commit suicide annually.

There are various and conflicting explanations -- including our long winters -- but universal agreement among experts that there is a woefully inadequate lack of funding, treatment facilities and trained child psychiatrists in Canada.

For desperate parents, the harsh reality is there are few places to turn to for help.

While Joanne admits there was some dysfunction in her home in the past, not unlike most families, she has tried to give her youngest of four girls all the attention and love she can muster hoping to help her overcome depression and a severe eating disorder.

She's even been off work for the last year trying to care for Cassandra, a decision that's caused major financial strain for her family.

But despite her efforts, her now 17-year-old daughter's mental health has only worsened. In fact, she has now attempted suicide, or come dangerously close, five times in just over a year -- three times in the last few months.

"Each time it gets scarier," Joanne said. "I'm terrified that the next time she goes to the hospital will be in a body bag."

In spite of multiple stays in the psychiatric ward at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, where Cassandra was last checked in on June 11, finding the right help to save her child's life has been next to impossible.

Joanne pointed out that getting immediate help for someone who is suicidal is easy enough, you can simply call 911 or visit the emergency department at any hospital.

But a hospital stay is only a temporary fix, something she has learned the hard way.

Cassandra's most recent admission to Oakville-Trafalgar lasted two weeks, but only because her mom pleaded repeatedly with staff not to release her.

As is often the case, drugs and alcohol are part of Cassandra's problem, exasperated by an eating disorder.

Joanne has looked into an assortment of aftercare programs, for both inpatients and outpatients. But they are few and far between and it can take six months to a year, or even longer, to get into such programs.

Her biggest fear is that her bulimic daughter will end up like Sara Carlin, another 17-year-old Oakville girl, who hung herself in her parents' basement in 2007. Carlin's death was recently at the centre of an inquiry into the use of Paxil, a prescription drug used to treat depression and anxiety.

After her initial suicide attempt, Cassandra was prescribed anti-depressants and began attending an eating disorder program in Halton Region. But Joanne claims she was dubbed "too risky" and was "kicked out."

Upset she was no longer allowed to attend the group counselling sessions, Cassandra stopped taking her medication.

A few days later she tried to kill herself for the second time.

The troubled teen was then admitted into a program at North York General Hospital. Her mom drove her into Toronto every day and she was "doing good" for a while.

But Cassandra managed to convince her counsellors and doctors that she was "fine" and they sent her on her way, the girl's mom claims.

"We told everybody she wasn't ready, but nobody would listen," Joanne said, adding her daughter soon fell back into her old habits.

Twice this year, in May following a break-up with a boyfriend, and on her 17th Birthday, the troubled teen again tried to kill herself.

Cassandra's illness has been tearing her family apart.

"My daughter wants help. And I can't be with her every minute of every day," said Joanne, who is now faced with either returning to work and leaving her daughter completely unattended or selling her home.

She believes her daughter needs to be admitted as an inpatient to a program with round-the-clock care. But that's easier said than done.

So far, Joanne claims she's been told her daughter is too old, too young, too sick or not sick enough, among other things.

"It shouldn't be so hard," said Joanne. She is currently trying desperately to get her daughter into Homewood, a private facility in Guelph.

Homewood has only one OHIP-covered bed and the wait for that spot is more than a year.

"All I want to do is save my child and I'll do whatever it takes to keep her alive and get her well, even if that means she ends up hating me."

’I FELT SO ALONE’

The countless scars wrapped around her wrist like bracelets indicate there's a darkness lurking beneath her beautiful facade.

Feint marks left from razor blade slashes are a constant reminder of the 17-year-old's struggles with depression, an eating disorder and periodic desires to end it all.

"I never really fit in," Cassandra Genovy told QMI Agency, while home on a weekend pass from Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial about a month ago.

She was admitted to hospital after her latest attempt at suicide, her fifth in just over a year.

Cassandra had few friends in her final years of elementary school and believes that's when her mental health issues first surfaced.

"I felt so alone ... unwanted ... and that's when I started scratching myself," she said, explaining she would claw at her forearm until it bled.

She attributes many of her woes to a lack of friends, boy troubles and clashes with her dad -- issues that may not seem like much to an adult but can be earth-shattering for a young girl, especially one who is suffering from depression.

"I started not liking school," Cassandra explained. "Then one day I just woke up and felt I didn't deserve to eat."

She became "obsessed" with exercising and began "restricting" herself to 500 calories a day -- about 1,700 calories less than is recommended for a teenage girl.

"When everything in your life is spiralling out of control, food is the one thing you can control," Cassandra said.

She then began "bingeing and purging," eating until she felt sick and then throwing up.

To control her weight, she started swallowing over-the-counter medications by the handful. And she became a master at hiding her illness.

When her mom put locks on the kitchen cupboards, she stole food from the grocery store. When she got in trouble for clogging up the toilet with vomit, she threw up into a garbage bag and hid it in her bedroom closet.

But eventually it all caught up with her.

Cassandra dropped out of school early this year, then her boyfriend dumped her in May on their one-year anniversary. She started sleeping all day, going out all night, drinking heavily and using street drugs, mainly marijuana.

"Things just became overwhelming and I had a meltdown," Cassandra admitted.

Doctors recently told her she has caused lasting damage to her body, which includes weakening her heart.

It seems unimaginable that such a sweet girl could be battling such demons.

But it becomes crystal clear in a second interview a few weeks later, after her release from hospital, that there are two starkly different Cassandras.

This one is sprawled on the couch of her parent's home, still too drunk and high from the night before to even sit up.

She's covered from head to toe with unexplained bruises and scratches, and her speech is so slurred that she's barely able to string together a sentence.

She looks more like someone who should be curled up on a grate in downtown Toronto than a teenager who has grown up in upscale Oakville.

Her mom, Joanne, and two of her sisters, Emily and Vicky, hover around Cassandra, obviously concerned for her well-being and for good reason.

She has just admitted to using cocaine for the first time, after learning a brother-in-law faces a potentially life-threatening medical issue.

"She has no coping skills, so this is how she deals with things like this," Vicky said. "But we truly believe the real Cassy is inside screaming for help."

[Nihilanthic]

I was reading through the news and thought this article would be of interest to some posters here. It shows in Canada they lack a robust private treatment industry and like many people argue here, treatment is only available at expensive clinical facilities with psychiatrists and professionals. This article points out the downside to having restrictions on the treatment industry and the impact it has on real families. It's definitely worth the read.

You're a fucking idiot. Public treatment exists in Canada, as does treatment abuse. A friend of mine could tell you ALL about it; kids slip through the cracks all the time.

Programs do a very poor job of finding kids with problems and taking them in, they only find wealthy people with bad parenting skills and even worse bullshit sorting skills.

[Oz girl]

Canada while having far less programs than the US does have a few. AARC is one and it is based on an abusive model that you and danny frequently claim does not exist anymore.
But I am glad you have brought up the international perspective. Great Britain has no programs with the exception of wellspring. Neither as far as I know does and eu country, south africa, Australia, New Zealand or and other commonwealth or oecd country that would count as having a legitimate democratic system. Yhere are legitimate boarding schools and there are jails for exceptionally criminal juvenniles who have been sentenced after being given due legal process but no where that private citizens can send kids indefinitely. None of these places have an excess of suicidal and drug addicted teens, and many a culturally very similar to the US so really this idea that without programs that remove children from the general community, american society would fall apart under the weight of crazy suicidal criminally delinquent kids does not hold weight.

[DannyB II]

Canada while having far less programs than the US does have a few. AARC is one and it is based on an abusive model that you and danny frequently claim does not exist anymore.
But I am glad you have brought up the international perspective. Great Britain has no programs with the exception of wellspring. Neither as far as I know does and eu country, south africa, Australia, New Zealand or and other commonwealth or oecd country that would count as having a legitimate democratic system. Yhere are legitimate boarding schools and there are jails for exceptionally criminal juvenniles who have been sentenced after being given due legal process but no where that private citizens can send kids indefinitely. None of these places have an excess of suicidal and drug addicted teens, and many a culturally very similar to the US so really this idea that without programs that remove children from the general community, american society would fall apart under the weight of crazy suicidal criminally delinquent kids does not hold weight.

Oz, stop it right now. England has a drug issue that is so out of control, they gave up on it and just hand out needles and condoms. Italy is one country that practically finances the entire drug trade through their mafioso. Turkey has it's share of problems as does the Netherlands and Ireland ect....
Just because you choose to turn your heads and not deal with the problem doesn't constitute, Oh we don't see the need for therapy/Treatment Centers.
Your just acting like typical Europe, pull up your boots straps dust yourself off and act like a man or woman.

[Pile of Dead Kids]

The Netherlands doesn't have a drug problem. The Netherlands has a drug solution. That country has a murder rate one-sixth of ours and less than half our assault rate. Same way with most of Europe.

Danny do you ever bother to Google before you start typing?

[DannyB II]

The Netherlands doesn't have a drug problem. The Netherlands has a drug solution. That country has a murder rate one-sixth of ours and less than half our assault rate. Same way with most of Europe.

Danny do you ever bother to Google before you start typing?

Pile I thought we were talking right now about drug addiction not assaults and murder, though Amsterdam has the their share along with London but here you go, I googied:

http://www.justice.gov/dea/demand/speakout/09so.htm
 
Fact 9: Europe’s More Liberal Drug Policies Are Not the Right Model for America.

     Over the past decade, European drug policy has gone through some dramatic changes toward greater liberalization. The Netherlands, considered to have led the way in the liberalization of drug policy, is only one of a number of West European countries to relax penalties for marijuana possession. Now several European nations are looking to relax penalties on all drugs—including cocaine and heroin—as Portugal did in July 2001, when minor possession of all drugs was decriminalized.
    *

      There is no uniform drug policy in Europe. Some countries have liberalized their laws, while others have instituted strict drug control policies. Which means that the so-called “European Model” is a misnomer. Like America, the various countries of Europe are looking for new ways to combat the worldwide problem of drug abuse.
    *

      The Netherlands has led Europe in the liberalization of drug policy. “Coffee shops” began to emerge throughout the Netherlands in 1976, offering marijuana products for sale. Possession and sale of marijuana are not legal, but coffee shops are permitted to operate and sell marijuana under certain restrictions, including a limit of no more than 5 grams sold to a person at any one time, no alcohol or hard drugs, no minors, and no advertising. In the Netherlands, it is illegal to sell or possess marijuana products. So coffee shop operators must purchase their marijuana products from illegal drug trafficking organizations.
    *

      Apparently, there has been some public dissatisfaction with the government’s policy. Recently the Dutch government began considering scaling back the quantity of marijuana available in coffee shops from 5 to 3 grams.
    *

      Furthermore, drug abuse has increased in the Netherlands. From 1984 to 1996, marijuana use among 18-25 year olds in Holland increased twofold. Since legalization of marijuana, heroin addiction levels in Holland have tripled and perhaps even quadrupled by some estimates.
    *

      The increasing use of marijuana is responsible for more than increased crime. It has widespread social implications as well. The head of Holland’s best-known drug abuse rehabilitation center has described what the new drug culture has created: The strong form of marijuana that most of the young people smoke, he says, produces “a chronically passive individual—someone who is lazy, who doesn’t want to take initiatives, doesn’t want to be active—the kid who’d prefer to lie in bed with a joint in the morning rather than getting up and doing something.”
    *

      Lifetime Cannabis Use (in the Netherlands): 1984=15%, 1996=44%Marijuana is not the only illegal drug to find a home in the Netherlands. The club drug commonly referred to as Ecstasy (3, 4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine or MDMA) also has strong roots in the Netherlands. The majority of the world’s Ecstasy is produced in clandestine laboratories in the Netherlands and, to a lesser extent, Belgium.
    *

      The growing Ecstasy problem in Europe, and the Netherlands’ pivotal role in Ecstasy production, has led the Dutch government to look once again to law enforcement. In May 2001, the government announced a “Five Year Offensive against the Production, Trade, and Consumption of Synthetic Drugs.” The offensive focuses on more cooperation among the enforcement agencies with the Unit Synthetic Drugs playing a pivotal role.
    *

      Recognizing that the government needs to take firm action to deal with the increasing levels of addiction, in April 2001, the Dutch government established the Penal Care Facility for Addicts. Like American Drug Treatment Courts, this facility is designed to detain and treat addicts (of any drug) who repeatedly commit crimes and have failed voluntary treatment facilities. Offenders may be held in this facility for up to two years, during which time they will go through a three-phase program. The first phase focuses on detoxification, while the second and third phases focus on training for social reintegration.
    *

      The United Kingdom has also experimented with the relaxation of drug laws. Until the mid-1960s, British physicians were allowed to prescribe heroin to certain classes of addicts. According to political scientist James Q. Wilson, “a youthful drug culture emerged with a demand for drugs far different from that of the older addicts.” Many addicts chose to boycott the program and continued to get their heroin from illicit drug distributors. The British Government’s experiment with controlled heroin distribution, says Wilson, resulted in, at a minimum, a 30-fold increase in the number of addicts in ten years.
    *

      map of AmsterdamSwitzerland has some of the most liberal drug policies in Europe. In late 1980s, Zurich experimented with what became known as Needle Park, where addicts could openly purchase drugs and inject heroin without police intervention. Zurich became the hub for drug addicts across Europe, until the experiment was ended, and “Needle Park” was shut down.
    *

      Many proponents of drug legalization or decriminalization claim that drug use will be reduced if drugs were legalized. However, history has not shown this assertion to be true. According to an October 2000 CNN report, marijuana, the illegal drug most often decriminalized, is “continuing to spread in the European Union, with one in five people across the 15-state bloc having tried it at least once.”
    *

      photo-James Q. WilsonIt’s not just marijuana use that is increasing in Europe. According to the 2001 Annual Report on the State of the Drugs Problem in the European Union, there is a Europe-wide increase in cocaine use. The report also cites a new trend of mixing “base/crack” cocaine with tobacco in a joint at nightspots. With the increase in use, Europe is also seeing an increase in the number of drug users seeking treatment for cocaine use.
    *

      Drug policy also has an impact on general crime. In a 2001 study, the British Home Office found violent crime and property crime increased in the late 1990s in every wealthy country except the United States.
    *

      Not all of Europe has been swept up in the trend to liberalize drug laws. Sweden, Finland, and Greece have the strictest policies against drugs in Europe. Sweden’s zero-tolerance policy is widely supported within the country and among the various political parties. Drug use is relatively low in the Scandinavian countries.
    *

      In April 1994, a number of European cities signed a resolution titled “European Cities Against Drugs,” commonly known as the Stockholm resolution. It states: “The demands to legalize illicit drugs should be seen against the background of current problems, which have led to a feeling of helplessness. For many, the only way to cope is to try to administer the current situation. But the answer does not lie in making harmful drugs more accessible, cheaper, and socially acceptable. Attempts to do this have not proved successful. By making them legal, society will signal that it has resigned to the acceptance of drug abuse. The signatories to this resolution therefore want to make their position clear by rejecting the proposals to legalize illicit drugs. ”

[Pile of Dead Kids]

According to an October 2000 CNN report, marijuana, the illegal drug most often decriminalized, is “continuing to spread in the European Union, with one in five people across the 15-state bloc having tried it at least once.”

Researchers found that 42% of people surveyed in the U.S. had tried marijuana at least once

http://www.time.com/time/health/article ... 97,00.html

Boy howdy, that prohibition sure is stopping people from getting their hands on pot!

Honestly I'm not sure why the DEA still exists as an organization other than bureaucratic inertia. Give a quarter of its agents to the ATF, another half to the FBI, and fire the rest.

[Oz girl]

I assumev by european you mean any country that is not america! There is no uniform "european" view as every different country in europe has a different culture, political structure and language. In the case of Oz and NZ they are actually culturally closer to the US than most european countries.
 But all you have shown is that is countries liberal on prohibition people choose to exercise those rights and take drugs. In the US and australia people take drugs anyway and dodge the authorities. Can you explain
But those who want to give up and who have trouble on their own seek help without requiring loved ones to force them into an institution against their will. You have also completely ignored the myriad of other reasons why kids go into programs. Interestingly in the 90s australia had the highest youth suicide rates in the world. A variety of mental health strategies were employed and none of them involved wilderness therapy, tough love or institutionalization for extended periods of time. by 2005 the rate had halved.
I say this not to play some kind of game of international 1 upmanship but to point out that there are a lot of very effective methods for helping teens with mental health issues in western cultures that do not involve programs.
Cab you show any single disorder like add or aspergers or bipolar disorder that has been cured by a program? What specific correlation between programs and a reduction in any one specific problem is there?