Editor’s note: This article makes a reference to suicidal ideation. The Canada Suicide Prevention Service line is available 24/7 at 1-833-456-4566.
AURORA - Ava’s mental health struggles started at an early age.
Ava, whose last name has been omitted for privacy reasons, said she has grappled with anxiety since she was eight years old and depression since she was 12.
A bright student with near-perfect grades, Ava’s father, John, said her mental health issues came to a head in her high school years, when she started using cannabis and vaping nicotine.
“It’s basically just a redundant circle of you becoming more depressed, the more you use,” said Ava.
Around the age of 16, she started showing symptoms of borderline personality disorder.
“We kind of needed to get some extra help, the therapy wasn’t fully helping,” said John. “There’s so many kids that need it and so little to help, so it takes so long it bogs it down.”
Ava said nearly “every teenager” she has talked to has said the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns have had negative impacts on their mental health, and she described it as “a trauma for everyone.”
“Everyone was at home, so many of us teenagers don’t know how to interact with people or have no social conception of how to interact with people, because we were shut in our house for two years," she said. “Our first years of high school, when we’re supposed to be getting out and meeting people, we were separated, couldn’t talk to each other, had to wear masks and stand six feet apart from one another."
"Even (for) tonnes of adults, it took a great toll on them, so teenagers, it took a big toll on them," she added.
Father, daughter turn to $35,000 Aurora rehab facility
Desperate for help, Ava and her father turned to the Aurora-based Freedom From Addiction rehabilitation facility, where Ava was admitted this past April to help her tackle an addiction to cannabis.
But little more than two weeks into her 60-day stay, Ava was sent to Southlake Regional Health Centre’s psychiatric intensive care unit, after she started demonstrating signs of suicidal ideation.
When Ava was told an ambulance was coming, she said she did not want to leave the facility.
“If I wanted to go to the psych ward, I can go to the psych ward near my house, I didn't come here to go to a psych ward in Aurora,” said Ava, who lives with her parents at their home in Oshawa.
Later that night after being discharged, Ava and John returned but without the discharge papers from the hospital. The pair said staff at the Aurora facility refused to re-admit her without them.
Now months later, after a series of back and forths, Ava has not returned to the centre, while John is out of pocket for $35,000.
“Now we’re totally at our wits end,” said John. “Ava doesn't want to go back, we don’t want her to go back now, we don’t trust the place ... she doesn’t trust anybody.”
Speaking to AuroraToday, co-founder of Freedom From Addiction Franco Lupo said while he's unable to discuss specific cases, the accredited centre has been running for 13 years and has helped many clients with their recovery.
"I stand behind the work we do, we all love what we do, I wouldn't have anybody working there who isn't passionate about recovery and helping people," he said.
Problems with the system
The costly experience is just the latest in a series of frustrating encounters with the province’s mental health-care system, which John said is “overloaded,” while Ava described it as “under-staffed and “not very productive.”
“It costs a lot of money to get the proper help you need,” she said. “It’s not a very productive system."
“I’ve been in the psych ward tonnes of times, and they never help.”
Ava said while the province has "free" health care, free mental health-care resources are hard to access. John said the demand means there are lengthy waits to access a number of programs, while paid options quickly add up.
“We wanted Ava to get a psychological review, if we waited and didn’t do it on our own and pay the $4,000 to do it, we would have waited three, four, five years. That could have been too late and we could have lost Ava," said John.
“It took us a while to get on the wagon and then you get therapy for her, and your coverage only covers like $800 to $1,500 but she needs intensive, every week, sometimes twice a week, and that’s like $200, $250 a pop,” he added. “Sooner or later that runs out and you just try and get it out of your own pocket. And that’s just for a regular psychotherapist. Not a psychiatrist, not a psychologist.”
Ava said while free, easier-to-access resources like mental helplines can be “comforting,” they don’t offer long-term support.
A survey of more than 10,000 Ontario students, released last month by Centre for Addiction and Mental Health found that 38 per cent of students rate their mental health as fair or poor, while a similar number (37 per cent) reported experiencing elevated stress levels.
One-third of students reported that they felt they needed mental health support from a professional during the past year, but did not seek it, adds the survey. The most common reasons cited for not seeking help are thinking they could manage it themselves, being afraid of what others would think about them, and being “too busy.”
In the most recent provincial budget, there was an additional $396 million over three years to improve access and expand existing mental health and addictions services and programs.
“Under the leadership of Premier Ford, our government is making record investments in the health and well-being of our children and youth, now and for the future,” deputy premier and minister of health Sylvia Jones said in a news release. “This investment will connect more children and youth to mental health care closer to home that is supportive and inclusive of their individual needs.”
