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EDITORIAL: For all the Steffanies

Editor's note: The Chief's weekly editorial represents the opinion of the newspaper. Steffanie Georgina Anne Lawrence should be enjoying her fifteenth summer swimming at the lake, sleeping in and perhaps working a part-time job.
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Editor's note: The Chief's weekly editorial represents the opinion of the newspaper.

Steffanie Georgina Anne Lawrence should be enjoying her fifteenth summer swimming at the lake, sleeping in and perhaps working a part-time job.

Instead, Sunday marked six months since the highschooler died of a fentanyl overdose.

“There are no words to describe what Steff’s entire family has been through in the last year and will continue to go through for the rest of our lives,” her mother Brenda Doherty said this weekend.

Steffanie is a symbol of the many children our community has lost to the opioid epidemic.

After her parents went public with what they said were major gaps in the mental health and addictions system for youth that led to their daughter’s death, Minister for Mental Health and Addictions Judy Darcy expressed compassion and a shared desire to better the system.

But we have to hold the government to account for this hopeful sentiment.

Asked what is currently being done, a spokesperson for the ministry said Darcy has been meeting with groups, including parents who have lost children to overdose, as part of the ministry’s ongoing engagement with stakeholders “to build a better, more co-ordinated mental health and addictions system with a central focus on children and youth.”

With respect to Secure Care laws — the legal ability for parents to involuntarily commit their children for treatment that Steffanie’s family has repeatedly called for — the ministry seems hesitant.

“We understand the need for a full range of voluntary treatment and recovery services for young people living with substance use disorders, so that there are more opportunities for them to get help before involuntary care would be considered,” read the ministry statement.

The ministry is in the midst of reviewing B.C.’s Mental Health Act and related statutes to determine “the suite of services that would be provided before and after any kind of involuntary admission and the appropriateness and need for involuntary admission legislation.”

Doherty said that while she welcomes more services, involuntary treatment needs to be made available to desperate parents immediately.

“Steffanie did try voluntary treatment and found it too hard, so wouldn’t agree to treatment thereafter. It is our responsibility to protect our children and right now there is no way for us to do that. I believe that we need some form of involuntary treatment that will allow children to be in a safe, clean environment for some time to allow them to have a clear mind to make life-threatening decisions for themselves,” she said, adding a message for the current government.

 “Please don’t make other families and children go through this. You can stop this right now.”

We will have to wait and see if the ministry’s words and reviews turn into action.

In the meantime, let the minister know — Squamish is watching. [Minister Judy Darcy: MH.Minister@gov.bc.ca]

To sign the online petition launched by Steffanie’s dad in support of secure care go to Protect our Children: Demand the B.C. Government pass Bill M 240, The Safe Care Act on change.org.

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