Local mom advocating for better mental health services

Bonnie McBride, a mom of four adopted children, created Moms for Mental Health Kamloops to fight for more access to mental health services in B.C.'s Interior region.

"It's an opportunity for the community to come together in one place," McBride says. "Right now, what we're working on is garnering that large body of support."

She wants people within the community to join the cause and sign a Change.org petition asking Interior Health to expand mental health support. McBride created a Facebook page and website to direct people to the Change.org petition. 

She's also asking people within the community to submit their personal stories of a time where they witnessed, or experienced, a mental health crisis and could have benefitted from having a trained professional's help. 

It's a movement that's close to McBride's heart. She has an adopted 10-year-old daughter with multiple unique mental health challenges.  

"Her needs are complex. In a crisis where she can't regulate her emotions, she can't connect with us and we can't calm her down, it becomes unsafe," McBrides explains. "Sometimes we just need some help. Right now our only option is to call 911, and it's the police who attend that call. The RCMP don't have training in that. The last time they attended our home, the dispatcher neglected to tell them that our daughter has special needs." 

City Hall and the RCMP have both asked Interior Health to expand mental health teams, but the health authority says it may not be a good use of resources.

"They've forgotten the people and they're thinking about the figures," McBride says. "I will never, ever in my life live down watching my daughter loaded into the back of an RCMP cruiser, it was awful. Everything about the entire experience was awful for her and for me. And it will be with us for a long time."

To submit your story to Moms for Mental Health Kamloops, click here.