WINNIPEG — The mother of a suicidal man who died after being discharged from a Winnipeg hospital wants changes to mental health policies.
Bonnie Bricker's son, Reid, was discharged from three Winnipeg hospitals after three suicide attempts in ten days in October 2015.
Police found the 33-year-old's remains near Selkirk in June.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said proper protocol was followed in releasing Reid, but Bricker says that protocol is flawed.
Bricker is part of a task force with the health authority to review mental health services.
She says she's recommended changing the health authority’s discharge protocol, ensuring there is ongoing training and education for nurses and health practitioners on the Mental Health Act and giving patients access to trained peer support counsellors who’ve dealt with their own mental health.
“You don’t get past it. You don’t find closure. You don’t get beyond it. What you do is adapt to your new reality,” Bricker said, “That’s what you do because you don’t have a choice.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the WRHA said it is "aware there have been concerns raised recently by families and patients of the mental health program and has been an active participant on the task force put into place following Mr. Bricker’s disappearance.”
Bricker is holding a rally at the legislature Sunday afternoon to bring people together to collectively call for changes. She wants to make sure what happened to her son is not repeated.
“I could in fact just shrug my shoulders and say I lost this fight, I lost my son, I’m going to curl into my own life and ignore everybody else,” Bricker said. “I don’t have to keep on fighting this fight but I need some reason to keep going.”
