Woman lost in mental health care maze
After trying to navigate health system for more than a year, daughter of residential school survivor says she's 'at wit's end'
Joseph Tunney
Northern News Services
Friday, June 3, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A woman bearing the scars of the residential-school system says after a year of waiting, she is still not receiving the mental-health help she needs.
The woman, whom Yellowknifer has chosen to grant anonymity for her protection, said since May 15 of last year she has been trying to book a counselling appointment with Community Mental Health and Adult Services Yellowknife but hasn't been granted one yet.
"I was just pissed off because of the slowness of the system," she said. "I can't seem to talk to anybody that's really knowledgeable about PTSD or mental health."
The woman is originally from Fort Simpson but now lives in Yellowknife. She described to Yellowknifer a rough childhood with a mother who went to residential school. She said her mother was taken away at the age of three and was never taught proper parenting skills.
"There were no, 'I love you's,'" she said. "She was so ashamed to give us a bath."
Her father was abusive, sometimes sexually, and her mother never stopped it. There was also alcohol abuse in the family, leading her to start drinking excessively during her teenage years.
Her father died in the early 1970s and her mother died in the late '80s. After that, she and four of her siblings were put in a hostel.
The woman says she has since recovered from her drinking habits, but she still needs help.
"This inner turmoil is not good," she said.
After an initial intake appointment last May, the woman was put on a waiting list.
She says a representative with Community Mental Health and Adult Services Yellowknife advised her to contact Health Canada, where she would be able to book an appointment for residential-school counselling. She was told if she couldn't get in contact with Health Canada she should call the mental-health clinic back.
She said when she called Health Canada, no one picked up the phone.
When she tried to call the clinic back, she also received no reply.
That same May, the woman went to see a few psychiatrists from out of town. She was told she would be put on the same waiting list she was already on and was given a number for a territorially-funded same-day counselling services.
A few weeks ago, after she had spent approximately a year on the waiting list, she tried the same-day counselling service but they told her she was going to be referred back to intake. When she brought up the fact she had already been through intake and had been put on the waiting list, she was told she had been taken off it because "nobody had heard from her."
She was also told she didn't qualify for Health Canada's residential-school counselling, even though she had been told previously she did.
"I said, 'What do you mean I don't qualify? I called Health Canada a couple of times,'" she said.
The woman doesn't know if she qualifies or not, but the Health Canada's website states, "those raised by or raised in the household of a former Indian Residential School student" do.
The woman decided she would begin the process from scratch and booked a second intake appointment for May 26.
"So I went in for my 3:30 p.m. and was still very upset. I really need counseling," the woman said. "They said, 'Oh, it was supposed to be for 9:30 this morning.' ... I felt like exploding."
Lynda Strakowski, the manger for Community Mental Health and Adult Services Yellowknife, said communication breakdowns at the clinic do happen.
"We've really been trying to tighten up," Strakowski said. "But it is not unusual. I have heard people say they've been waiting."
She said there are a few ways a person might be taken off the waiting list. For instance, if the person has moved or if the clinic has tried to contact the person three times to no avail, they might be taken off.
Strakowski said someone who has been removed would have to come back for an intake meeting and get risk-assessed to analyze whether the situation is urgent or not.
"Our wait list is between two to three months," Strakowski said. "We're doing everything we can to address it but there's nothing else I can do."
She said resources at the clinic are strained.
"We are very poorly resourced," Strakowski said.
Les Harrison, CEO for Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority (YHSSA), which runs many of the community-based health services in Yellowknife, said his organization helps run the mental-health clinic.
"In government, one could make the argument it's overfunded or underfunded," Harrison said. "It's really, are we functioning in an efficient and effective way? I think we are."
Harrison said he would encourage the woman to come forward and talk to YHSSA's patient representative.
As for the woman, she just feels she's at her wit's end. She has been on and off medication for depression for much of her life and said recently she's taken a turn for the worse mentally.
"I went through some good times and bad times but now I just feel I still need to deal with residential school issues," she said. "I'm not doing well. Period."
