New Brunswick's child and youth advocate has released a scathing report on the lack of mental-health services for young people in the province.

The province needs to make significant changes to improve the services offered to young people, according to the report released Monday by Bernard Richard, also the province's ombudsman.

Among the 48 recommendations in the report Connecting the Dots:

• Designating a minister responsible for child and youth services.
• Establishing a community-based facility for youth with mental-health needs.
• Ending the practice of sending youth to jails that are ill-equipped to deal with their needs.

Richard chronicles the lives of seven young people who suffered due to the shortcomings of services provided by several government departments.

'They're at a loss, as those families are, to provide the services that they know are needed but that really don't exist in New Brunswick.'—Bernard Richard, N.B. child and youth advocate

According to the report, government departments often try to pass on the responsibility of caring for youth with mental illnesses.

Rather than provide necessary services, the government also relies on the courts, and too many youths end up facing criminal charges and jail time, according to Richard's report.

But courts and corrections officials in New Brunswick are not equipped to deal with the needs of young people with mental illnesses, Richard told a news conference in Fredericton.

"They're at a loss, as those families are, to provide the services that they know are needed but that really don't exist in New Brunswick," Richard said.

Premier Shawn Graham issued a written statement indicating the government does need to do better in some areas to address mental health services for youth, and it will study Richard's report.

Suicide, sexual abuse cited in report

The report details cases where mentally ill youngsters have been strip-searched and, in two cases, sexually abused in prisons where they have been placed because no other services were available.

According to the report, one young man killed himself because he felt isolated by his long battle with mental illness and worried about the burden on his parents.

One father seeking help for his emotionally troubled son told reporters the situation in New Brunswick is like something out of a bleak Charles Dickens novel.

"I was absolutely horrified," said Sheryl McCulloch, whose daughter's experiences are included in the report.

The report alleges McCulloch's daughter was shackled and strip-searched by guards wearing riot gear while she was held at the New Brunswick Youth Centre in Miramichi.

"Treating a child with serious mental health problems like this seems to me wholly indefensible," Richard said. "The serious issue to be determined is whether this is cruel and unusual punishment. Certainly, to the uninitiated, it appears that it is."

The girl was at the centre because laying criminal charges against her was the only way to get her help, McCulloch said.

"It was very challenging to get the services that we needed to meet her needs that I wasn't able to meet in the home," she said.

"I know mental illness has a … stigma to it and it has for years, but it's no different from the kids suffering from leukemia, or diabetes or cancer. They're all the same. They just need the same opportunities and the same services to be productive."

Richard's report also notes that some youths are transferred to an institution in Maine, where the province pays up to $500,000 for treatment.

Having young people moved out of the country and away from their families to get help is also unacceptable, Richard said.

 

With files from the Canadian Press