Beverly Quilt hopes the jury’s recommendations coming out of a coroner’s inquest into the death of her 18-year-old nephew Jacob Setah are not ignored.
“Our only wish is the recommendations made for our area are followed because sometimes recommendations are made and nothing happens,” Quilt said from Yunesit’in First Nation where Setah lived part time with his father when he wasn’t living with his mom in Williams Lake.
“We also hope that no one else will have to go through what we did when we put Jacob into the hospital.”
Setah jumped to his death off a three-storey parkade at Royal Inland Hospital two years ago after he escaped from the psychiatric ward and was Tasered by police in an attempt to bring him down.
The five-person jury’s 17 recommendations focused on improving care for First Nations youth suffering mental health crises and were directed at the First Nations Health Authority, Interior Health, Ministry of Children and Family Development and the RCMP.
They range from providing more supports to families and remote communities to equipping hospitals in Williams Lake and Kamloops to better serve mental health patients.
Quilt, who attended the inquest in Kamloops April 11 to 14, described her nephew as a funny kid who loved to laugh and often encouraged others to do the same.
“If he noticed someone was discouraged or mad, he would tell them to just be happy, it’s the only thing we can do.”
Yunesit’in Chief Russell Myers Ross also attended the inquiry.
He said one of the changes he pushed for was more integration of services.
“I think the First Nations Health Authority is still a fairly new organization and is trying to figure out how we relate with Interior Health Authority. How do we relate better with RCMP, and how do our organizations like Denisiqi Services relate with the Ministry of Children and Family?”
Myers Ross said similar recommendations were made in Lost in the Shadows, a 2014 report from the Representative for Child and Youth that investigated the suicide of a teenager from another remote Chilcotin community and identified gaps.
“It wasn’t a focal point, but when you sat through and heard Jacob’s story you realized how many gaps there were there too.”
The ability of professionals to make sure the families are fully involved when someone goes into care is so important, he added.
“For example, Jacob’s father wasn’t contacted almost at all through the process, even after Jacob’s death. He heard details at the inquest for the first time. Other details he’d only really heard through the media,” Myers Ross said.
For the inquiry they retained lawyer Doug King from Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver, who has worked with Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside most vulnerable people.
“He was there on our behalf between the community and the two families,” Myers Ross said. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to ask some of the harder questions during the inquiry.”
When Myers Ross testified at the inquiry, he emphasized there is often only enough funding for very part-time mental health positions in remote communities.
“In our case we have one mental health counsellor for one day a week,” he said. “If the counsellor could dedicate more time and help develop programs that would be very opportune.”
Even to have a mental health counsellor working in the school with youth and observing them would help, he added.
Hearing the details at the inquiry was hard for the family and himself, said Myers Ross, noting he realized everyone needs more time to grieve and heal.
“The families left quite angry,” he said. “I think it’s justifiable because people are dealing with grief and were hearing the information for the first time. I think there is anger directed at conduct of the RCMP and the use of the Taser and whether or not that was necessary.”