The province’s plans to expand involuntary care to include severe addiction has come too late for a 13-year-old girl who died of suspected overdose last month, her parents say.
Before Brianna MacDonald died in Abbotsford, B.C., her parents tried to get her treatment — but couldn’t, they said.
“We brought her to many doctors and psychiatrists throughout the years and tried to get her help,” Sarah MacDonald, Brianna’s mother, said. “But it just didn’t seem to help.”
On Sunday, Premier David Eby announced plans to expand admissions to involuntary care for mental health and addictions treatment, so people with brain injuries, mental illnesses and severe addiction can be detained in a psychiatric facility.
The parents of a 13-year-old girl say B.C.’s plans to expand its proposed involuntary care program for apprehensions under the Mental Health Act to include severe addiction comes too late. Brianna MacDonald died of a suspected overdose last month in Abbotsford. As Yasmine Ghania reports, her parents say they tried to get treatment for their daughter but couldn’t.
But MacDonald says the change didn’t come in time to get Brianna the care she needed.
MacDonald said she took Brianna to hospital when she had an overdose last February. Brianna was transferred to a children’s hospital for a couple days, then to a hospital in Surrey, and was discharged after about a week and a half, MacDonald said.
“I begged them and I cried, and said ‘can you please not let her go?'” MacDonald said. “She wasn’t ready to leave.”
At the time of publication, people can be held in a psychiatric facility under B.C.’s Mental Health Act if a doctor deems it necessary for their health and safety, or the safety of others.
In an email to CBC News, Fraser Health spokesperson Nick Eagland said decisions about how to treat a young person are guided by B.C.’s mature minor consent rules under the Infants Act.
The act means youth, not their parents, consent to treatment. Health-care providers can only accept a young person’s consent if they have carefully explained the treatment, and if the health care is in the person’s best interest.
“These types of rules are in place because … there are some young people who come from extremely difficult backgrounds, where it would not be safe or in the best interests of their health for their parents to be involved in their health-care decisions,” Eagland said.
Brianna died in August from what police suspect was an overdose, MacDonald said.
The Abbotsford Police Department confirmed that officers and paramedics responded to a report of an unresponsive 13-year-old near the 1900-block of Vedder Way about 3 a.m. PT on Aug. 23, and that the teenager died at the scene.
The B.C. Coroners Service says it’s still investigating Brianna’s death.
At a news conference Sunday, Eby said Brianna’s death was a “horrific” event.
“I can’t even imagine what her parents are going through,” Eby said. “I think it’s every parent’s worst nightmare.”
MacDonald says she hopes the changes to involuntary care can help others fighting severe addiction and their families.
“It might be too late for my daughter, but I’m praying it will help somebody else’s,” MacDonald said.