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Youth mental illness on the rise in the Fraser Health region

Surrey Hospital and Outpatient Centre Foundation raising more than $1 million for psychiatric unit at SMH to be completed next year.
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A new 10-bed

Last year, the Fraser Health Authority (FHA) treated approximately 2,000 youth showing signs of mental illness – a number that has more than doubled in the past six years.

According to Jane Adams, president and CEO of Surrey Hospital and Outpatient Centre Foundation, that's why more than $1 million in funds is needed by the health authority to establish a short-stay psychiatric unit for children aged six to 17.

To be located at Surrey Memorial Hospital, the 10-bed, 24-hour Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Stabilization Unit would house youth for a period of five to seven days. During that time, those young patients would be stabilized and assessed for further treatment.

Currently, the province has just five short-stay psychiatric beds for youth provincewide and they are all located at B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver.

"These 10 beds will triple the capacity in the province," said Adams.

Abbotsford resident and mother of two Karen Copeland said she still recalls having to travel to Vancouver while her now 12-year-old son received psychiatric treatment at B.C. Children's Hospital for his mental illness. The stress of commuting, additional expenses incurred, having to be away from her daughter and home, plus the reality of what her son was dealing with was simply "overwhelming."

"Anytime you can have a service like that (a Surrey youth psychiatric unit) locally, it is such a good thing for families," Copeland said. "I just totally believe in having it in Surrey, in Fraser Health."

According to the foundation, about one in seven young people in B.C. will experience a mental illness during their lifetimes, and up to 70 per cent of those mental health problems begin to develop before the age of 18.

The approximately $9 million needed to build and operate the facility will be paid by the FHA and government funding, Adams said. The remaining $1.25 million the foundation is raising will be used for making "the environment as child-friendly and sensory-appropriate as needed," she added.

To make a donation for the project, which is expected to be completed in June, 2016, visit https://championsforcare.com/donate