One families experience with mental health. Support Bill C-218

The point I wish to make is that even patients who have failed to improve with every other treatment must not be written off as being without hope!

We received this letter from Sharon Hunt in Saskatchewan.

Our family hopes that the story of my nephew Sean might help to strengthen the case against expanding MAID eligibility for the mentally ill. 

Sean suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder, and depressive disorder, in addition to several physical conditions which were not life threatening. The list of unbelievably terrible encounters with emergency services at the hospital, the psychiatric unit and psychiatrists is long. Years of failed treatment, adverse effects of medicines, episodes of psychosis, days of weeping and dealing with tremors were all made worse by poverty and anxiety over housing. His mom was his main caregiver, and because of inadequacy of our social safety net, she did this at sacrifice to her own well-being and to her financial security in retirement. (Their hope was for the federal plan for Disability without Poverty, which had stalled for years in Ottawa.) 

Eventually his mom was able to raise money (using a go fund me page on social media) for Sean to receive treatment at a special Ketamine clinic. That’s when a miracle began to unfold! Ketamine can be dangerous and has been known to kill persons who were self medicating. But in the controlled environment of the clinic, with anesthesiologist and counsellor present, Sean began to respond at the very first treatment! The problem was that Ketamine is not covered under the provincial drug plan and is prohibitively expensive for most people. The point I wish to make is that even patients who have failed to improve with every other treatment must not be written off as being without hope! Relegating them to death by MAID would be a very serious mistake!

In the end, we were still watching Sean’s progress toward a better life when he died very unexpectedly at age 39 from an undiagnosed heart condition.

Because of his mom’s advocacy, the Saskatchewan Mental Health Association established “Sean’s Fund”, a charity dedicated to improving the lives of persons with intellectual disabilities due to mental illness. It’s a lesson in hopeful action that must not be lost on our parliamentarians as they go to vote on Bill C-218.

Sincerely, Sharon Hunt