A provincial non-profit that supports families of kids with mental health challenges has had to pull the plug on its parent support program in Burnaby and New Westminster because of a lack of funding.
The F.O.R.C.E. Society for Kids’ Mental Health (FORCE), a West Vancouver-based organization, has funded a Parent in Residence, Danielle Dionne, in Burnaby and New West for a year-and-a-half.
Her role has been to empower parents of children and youth who struggle with mental health issues and to help them navigate the child and youth mental health system.
“Here’s an example,” FORCE director Christie Durnin told the NOW. “You’re a parent and you have a child who has anxiety or has bipolar, and you’ve gone to see your family doctor, and you’re on a wait-list now to see a clinician, and you aren’t sure what to do in the meantime or where to begin.”
FORCE Parents in Residence – all of whom have “been there” when it comes to child and youth mental health struggles – can also sit in on school meetings.
“The system is certainly not very navigation friendly,” said FORCE founder Keli Anderson, who found school meetings one of the toughest parts of helping her own child manage mental health problems. “It’s very tough to navigate, and just to have somebody else with you can just be another set of ears even, to listen and support some questions that you might have wanted to ask but you don’t know how to ask or you’re forgetting to ask.”
The FORCE has had funding from the Ministry of Children and Family Development for Parents in Residence in a number of B.C. communities, including Coquitlam, but the organization has never been able to secure funding for Burnaby and New Westminster.
“We had been able to have our Parent in Residence from another community cover off some of Burnaby and New West,” Anderson said, “but it wasn’t something that could be sustained without some supported funding.”
Local parents can still access a Parent in Residence by calling the Kelty Mental Health Resource Centre at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, but Anderson said it’s not the same as having a parent in the community.
She said the situation points to a provincewide problem with child and youth mental health funding, which she called “deeply inadequate.”
“If, at a provincial level, you don’t have funds that go down to regions and communities, they’re impacted,” she said. “I think there’s funding issues across the board around child and youth mental health.”
For more info about contacting a FORCE Parent in Residence, phone 855-887-8004 or visit forcesociety.com.
