A grieving mother says Island Health pulled the rug out from underneath well-laid plans and fundraising for a new youth and addictions unit near the region’s pediatric medical teams at Victoria General Hospital.
“We did have a lead donor,” said Rachel Staples. “At this point, I don’t know where we stand on that.”
Staples’ son, Elliot Eurchuk, died in February of 2018 of an accidental toxic drug poisoning.
Two months before he died, Elliot was admitted to Victoria General Hospital (VGH) for his addiction issues. Staples says he wasn’t properly helped.
“He had a very traumatizing experience going into the system and was offered very little in the way of assistance to get him beyond his illness of addiction.”
More recently, Staples has been organizing and fundraising for what was supposed to be a new ‘revolutionary’ youth mental health unit at VGH close to the region’s pediatric team.
Instead, Staples says she was blindsided when Island Health announced a change of plans.
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“Just recently we had the rug pulled from underneath us, and we were told that this new unit that we were dreaming of and fundraising for, was going to be re-located at Eric Martin [Pavillion].”
Island Health told Staples that due to overcrowding and the need for emergency beds at VGH, it had made the decision to put the youth mental health and addictions unit in Royal Jubilee Hospital’s (RJH) Eric Martin Pavilion.
Right now, Eric Martin offers withdrawal management, stabilization and outpatient care for adults with severe and complex mental illness. Staples says “the facility is completely inappropriate” to engage a youth wanting to get better.
“It’s very, very institutional in its appearance,” said Staples. “I don’t think you could get a youth to step through the threshold of that door. At least my child would have never consented to even go near that building. Unfortunately it has a stigma because it’s currently housing people who are not getting better under the current model.”
Royal Jubilee is about 12 kilometres away from the region’s pediatric ward. And given that mental health crises in youth often occur alongside physical health problems, Staples says adding distance between the two facilities adds unnecessary risk, logistical delays and a potential gap in care, specifically during emergencies.
“I also think it’s going to be very difficult to find a donor to invest in an aging facility, to build out a building that, in my perspective, is completely inappropriate for those uses,” said Staples.
She’s written a letter urging Island Health to reconsider the direction of the project, and to contemplate a location that’s more inviting to children, better for their treatment and healing, and close to VGH’s pediatric team.
Island Health says it’s in the early stages of planning the Eric Martin renovation, with a report and cost expected in the late summer or early fall.
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