Letters: I don’t know who I can trust in mental health care

I am a woman in my late thirties with a long history of struggles with mental illness relating to complex PTSD, major depression, and anxiety. I have had over a dozen potentially fatal suicidal overdoses requiring hospitalization and many admissions to in-patient psychiatry, often requiring prolonged stays. When I am doing well I want to live and I see the value and gift of my life. I have been able to complete two graduate degree programs, work full-time as a professional in a job I love and actively engage in my local community.

When I am unwell, there are times when I am absolutely convinced that I would be better off dead and am insistent that I want to die. The current Canadian legislation seeking to give access to MAiD for individuals with chronic mental illness truly frightens me.

MAiD is incompatible with my deeply held belief in the dignity and value of every human life, no matter how difficult and painful the circumstances an individual may be facing. It also goes against what I truly desire when I am well.

At the moment, I am well, working full time and fully engaged in life. There have, however, been seasons in my life when I have been very unwell and convinced that I wanted to die. I am afraid that with the opening up of MAiD to those living with chronic mental illness there will be very little to protect me if I were ever caught up again in a season of suicidality and major depression.

Some may say that there are safeguards in place but those safeguards will not necessarily protect me from myself. Even if there is a 90-day waiting period, there have been times where I have been very depressed and been consumed by suicidal thoughts for more than 90 days. Even if I make known to my physicians and family my beliefs regarding MAiD, it is possible that if I were severely depressed and seeking MAiD I might “shop around” for a doctor until I found someone willing to agree to my request and they would be under no obligation to notify my family or former physicians of my request.

I am afraid that one day, in a deep depression, I could seek MAiD and no one who truly knows and loves me would even know until it was too late.

I do not feel safe or protected in a mental health system that supports MAiD for mental illness. I don’t know who I can trust within the system to truly be fighting for my life. How can a psychiatrist do everything in their power to help someone who is suicidal and yet on the other hand also be willing to sign off on medically assisted suicide for a patient?

My family physician and psychiatrist know of my anxieties regarding MAiD for mental illness but often in the emergency room or when admitted to in-patient psychiatry patients are not under the direct care of physicians who have known them long term. To be honest, the push for MAiD for mental illness makes me hesitant to be willing to seek help in times of crisis because I don’t know who I can trust within the mental health care system.

I don’t feel like I can trust a health-care provider who would be willing to sign off on MAiD for mental illness to help me when I am struggling with mental illness.

On a broader level, the acceptance of MAiD for mental illness sends the message that society believes a life like mine, a life lived with chronic mental illness, is not worth living. Society seems to be saying that suicide is an acceptable “solution” in the face of acute struggles with mental illness and that my life is not worth fighting for. Can I trust that the next time I face an acute major depressive episode I will be able to get the help I need or will I simply be offered MAiD when I insist that I want to die?

The writer’s name has been withheld for privacy reasons — Editor.

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I appreciate Peter Stockland’s update on the claims of “mass” graves of Indigenous children on residential school sites. Unfortunately, first impressions are hard to change.

There may be two worlds trying to co-exist, as he points out, however, most people still believe that the clergy and nuns of the Catholic Church murdered indigenous children and buried them in mass graves. Media and Prime Minister Trudeau with his teddy bear photo-op were happy to promote the story without facts to back it up. If it wasn’t the Catholic Church, they would likely be sued for defamation.

Joan Davies
Coquitlam

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When my friend was diagnosed with aggressive and terminal brain cancer a few years ago, she spent a week at Vancouver General Hospital before being transferred to a palliative care home.

The transfer was done without giving her extra medication because I was with her in the ambulance when the transfer took place and she was not worried or upset.

At the palliative care home she was welcomed by a nurse and accompanied into her private room that was also open to family and friends day and night.

We made it clear that she definitely did not want any medically assisted suicide.

A lady from our parish did visit every morning and prayed with her.

I visited daily and spent hours by her side or sitting on the sofa close to the bed .

A priest visited and was welcomed warmly by staff.

They also cared for her in a gentle and kind way.

Amazingly not even pain medication was needed till her death four weeks later.

We decorated the room. There was a huge picture of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Throughout Advent we played beautiful music.

On Christmas Day I visited the dying lady and her family in the next room to wish a happy Christmas.

They borrowed our CD player and played wonderful Christmas songs.

One day, when I was chatting with my parishioner friend, a doctor came in and said, “Just keep talking. Your friend knows you are here and that she is not alone.”

She died on Jan. 2, very peacefully, in the presence of the two people who did visit daily, right after we had said the Divine Mercy prayer.

Marianne Werner
Vancouver

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Re “Dividing Catholics one podcast at a time” B.C. Catholic, Nov. 13:

Thank you to Paul Schratz for his timely reminder about our history as a church and the tendency today to “gossip” about every headline coming out of Rome. I often find myself torn and even taking sides in the different camps. It’s good to be reminded through the words of Scott Hahn, “ “We love Pope Francis; we don’t have to read every single word he publishes. We want to pray for him so that he is teaching with clarity.”

Thank you for giving Catholics that clarity of vision and discernment.

John Hof
Langley

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I’m writing in reply to the Nov. 6 letter about shaking hands in church.

A handshake during Mass is not about showing love, like kissing the person next to you; it’s about showing peace, and wishing peace. “Peace be with you,” What the world needs now more than ever is PEACE! Yes, shake hands with the people around you during Mass … and look them in the eye while you’re doing it. Mean it!

Juliette Robertson
Mission

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I applaud Archbishop Miller for so courageously speaking out against the unlawful incarceration of Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai. Mr. Lai and his fellow activists in Hong Kong sacrificed their lucrative and successful businesses and career, all in order to fight for some semblance of a free and democratic society for this place they call home.

Mr. Lai is a multi-millionaire and is in possession of a British passport. He could have fled the city long ago, but he felt a sense of responsibility to his fellow citizens in Hong Kong. He said that he did not want to simply speak out, and let others bear the responsibility.

If Mr. Lai had played along with Hong Kong’s puppet regime, which is simply a mouthpiece of Beijing, he could have had fame and fortune. But like St. Thomas More, Mr. Lai prefers to give up the riches of this world for the rewards of the next.

If he is found guilty, there is a real possibility that he would be extradited to Mainland China to serve out his jail time, which would mean the end of Mr. Lai’s earthly life.

I pray that more of Mr. Lai’s fellow Catholics, politicians as well as churchmen, would speak out against China’s tyrannical regime, and for the release of Mr. Jimmy Lai and his fellow democracy advocates.

Imagine if there had been more Germans like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who spoke out forcefully against Hitler’s Nazi regime, the history of Western Europe may have turned out very differently.

Patrick May
Vancouver

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