The federal prison watchdog is probing two more "troubling" inmate deaths, which he says question the correctional service's ability and willingness to prevent suicides in the wake of the Ashley Smith case.

"There have been subsequent deaths in custody, which I'm investigating – a couple of which are very troubling and which reflect some of the same failings we found in Ashley Smith's death," Howard Sapers, the federal correctional investigator, told theToronto Star.

Smith, 19, killed herself in 2007 at a Kitchener prison for women. A recent Star story detailed how her developing mental illness went untreated and how guards watched as she strangled herself in a segregation cell. MORE HERE

Homelessness has grown worse across British Columbia during the past three years, and the federal government has failed to help.

Those are among the conclusions of a Tyee panel of six experts who graded three levels of government on their efforts to end homelessness. The informal panel issued C grades to the City of Vancouver and the Province of British Columbia, while slapping the Government of Canada with an F.

Panelists were selected for two criteria: All have first-hand experience working with the homeless in Vancouver, and none are employed by government. They are: Sean Condon, editor of Megaphone Magazine; Nancy Hall, former mental health advocate; Dave Jones, security consultant to the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association; Jean Swanson, co-ordinator of the Carnegie Community Action Project; Laura Track, housing lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society; and Harsha Walia, project coordinator at the Downtown Eastside Women Centre.

No one should suppose that this grading process was either scientific or unbiased -- most of those on the panel are professional critics. But their comments do provide a perspective on where British Columbia has made progress against its sprawling homelessness problem, and where there is still more to do.

Homelessness has grown worse MORE HERE

If mental-health patients get sicker because of cuts to services in Victoria, they could end up costing the health system more in emergency care, says one of Canada's most experienced psychiatrists.

"I know of no system which could sensibly cut both in-patient services and outpatient community supports at the same time and still say they will deliver the same level of service," said Dr. Donald Milliken, the former chief of psychiatry at the Eric Martin Pavilion, who now works in the mood-disorders clinic at the facility.

Mentally ill patients will have access to fewer resources as a result of the Vancouver Island Health Authority cuts announced this week, said Milliken.

VIHA is cutting 15 per cent of bed capacity at Eric Martin, about 10 beds. Also eliminated are six counsellors, about 25 per cent of that force. There will also be a 20 per cent cut in the number of people providing follow-up care for those discharged from psychiatric care. MORE HERE

People with symptoms of mental illness often wait years before seeking treatment. And by the time they do, some will have the odds stacked against them because of the related effects of their disorder: substance abuse, reduced employment options and broken relationships with friends and family.

It's a vicious pattern that the Nova Scotia government is hoping to break by offering even the youngest students specific education in mental health.

Mamoona Brace, who teaches a combined Grade 4 and 5 class in Dartmouth, said she has been incorporating the new curriculum regularly into her classroom. The messages at this level include students being told about the signs of mental disorders, and how to distinguish possible symptoms from normal ups and downs.

The teacher noted that everyday life can provoke a roller-coaster of emotion for children, and they need to recognize when they should be concerned. MORE HERE

Kim Clark used to live around the corner from me. We had kids at the same schools and I knew she was an interpreter for hearing impaired students. As a neighbour, I hadn’t the slightest notion she was dealing with teenage daughter who was developing schizophrenia.

Today a resident of Metro Halifax, Clark suspects Koral lives on the street or in people’s backyards. She has seen her 25-year-old daughter twice in the past six months.

If she breaks the law, only then can Clark hope to get Koral back on her medication for paranoid schizophrenia.

But that is not easy. As an adult in her mid-20s, Koral is recognized as independent. Yet, Clark is well aware that off her meds, Koral, who also has hearing problems, is not cognitively capable of making decisions.

Clark is hopeful that Koral might someday live at the mental health transition centre under construction in Dartmouth. The four 10-bedroom bungalows at the site of the Nova Scotia Hospital promise transitional housing for those who have been hospitalized. Residents will get care while practicing the life skills they will need to live in the community.

Clark hopes the project can fill a large gap in the mental health system. All too often, the current system leaves people utterly on their own after hospital treatment. Then, they flounder “and the cycle repeats itself,” she adds.

More Here

ANDRÉ PICARD

From Saturday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Monday, Sep. 28, 2009 11:29AM EDT

Near the end of primary school, Bronwyn Loucks began to suffer from increasingly frequent and severe bouts of sadness and worry.

“Sometimes my heart would be racing so fast, I felt like I was going to pass out,” she says. “Other times, I would come home from school and just collapse in a heap.”

In junior high, the problems grew worse and Ms. Loucks developed an eating disorder, bulimia, in addition to anxiety disorder and depression.

“I really felt like I was going to die – but I felt like I deserved to die.”

Then one day, she's not sure why, the teenager from Chesley, a small Ontario town south of Owen Sound, reached out: She called the Kids Help Phone, and was urged to confide in a trusted adult and get help.

At a loss about how to express the depth of her despair, she wrote a long letter and handed it to her mother. Before Mom had even finished reading it, the two were on their way to the local emergency room. More Here

Annette Dennis stared at the number and began to weep. 
"I had a good cry about it," the London woman recalls, first laughing then losing her composure again as she explains why. 

"I turned 38. I am older now than my big sister. She is my big sister. I am not supposed to be older. It goes to show you you never. . ." and Annette has to stop for a minute. You never get over it. She will never get over her big sister Diana killing herself. 

When Annette recently sent out a media release to promote the annual suicide awareness walk in London, she signed off for the first time with not just her name, but the sentence "Survivor of her sister Diana's suicide in 1999 at age 37." 

Despite the tears that sentence brought, it signalled to Dennis she was becoming more open about her sister's death. MORE HERE

By DR. PAUL MARTIQUET

Squamish – Mental health is one of those topics that seems to be left out of many conversations. Maybe it’s because there is a stigma to it, or it makes us uncomfortable. If we don’t talk about it for adults, we ignore it even more for our children. Whatever the reason, mental health is an important part of being human.

Mental health, according to the World Health Organization, is not just the absence of disorder. Rather, it is “a state of social and emotional wellbeing.” As such, it is a resource for living and functioning during our whole lives. Nevertheless, most disorders originate in childhood, making this the best time to intervene; early prevention to avoid needing treatment later.

At any given time, some 14 per cent of our children, or about 800,000 in Canada, experience mental disorders causing symptoms and impairment. These figures come from a study of children aged four to 17 in Canada, the U.S. and Great Britain. To be included in the count, children had to meet a high threshold, displaying significant symptoms and impairment. MORE HERE

BY ANDREAS MORSE

Hundreds of union workers rallied on the manicured Alberta Hospital grounds yesterday, in an attempt to keep the facility’s doors open. 

“We are going to spearhead a campaign to keep Alberta Hospital open,” said Doug Knight, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees president. “Clients come from all over Canada to this facility expressly for the care and treatment that they get here. It would be a crying shame if this facility was closed.”The 410-bed mental health facility opened its doors in 1923. Nearly 1,700 patients are treated at the hospital each year. 

The government made the decision to close the psychiatric hospital in mid-August, claiming the money saved would go into community resources, but Knight said there aren’t enough resources in the community now to house the hospital’s patients. MORE HERE