Who gets admitted to involuntary care spaces? Mental health advocate calls for transparency
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Newsweek
3 days ago
- Newsweek
Mom Captures Moment With Newborn—Not Knowing Days Later She'll Be Sectioned
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A U.K. mom captured a happy moment with her baby, not knowing that, days later, she would be sectioned. Jade Lloyd (@jadealloyd) posted a reel on Instagram smiling and playing with her newborn daughter, but, behind the scenes, the 31-year-old was falling apart. Lloyd told Newsweek that she had struggled mentally after giving birth. At her six-week checkup, she tried to speak out, but her doctor didn't take any notice. From left: Jade Lloyd holds her baby daughter while standing up. From left: Jade Lloyd holds her baby daughter while standing up. @jadealloyd "It got progressively worse, which then started to turn into suicidal thoughts," Lloyd said. After finally receiving a diagnosis of postnatal depression and being prescribed antidepressants, Lloyd felt pressure to appear as if she were improving. "[I] started putting on a front, although, inside, I was falling apart," Lloyd said. "I was trying to hold it together until my brain couldn't handle it anymore, and it turned into psychosis." Sleep deprivation, she was later told by clinicians, likely contributed to the onset of acute psychosis. "Over the period of a week, I probably slept a total of 10 hours," Lloyd added. Lloyd was sectioned under the U.K.'s Mental Health Act and was admitted to a Mother and Baby Unit—a specialist facility where mothers can receive psychiatric care while staying with their infants. "Initially, [it] felt like a prison, and, when I was sectioned, it meant I was unable to leave," Lloyd said. "My daughter and I were able to stay together, which was vital for my recovery, as I kept thinking I had killed her. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like if I wasn't able to be with her." Despite facing challenges during her stay, Lloyd said that her experience was positive overall, and she praised the staff who worked there. "They listened, cared for myself and my daughter, and gave me space to heal. I will be forever grateful for them," she said. Following her release after a month, Lloyd struggled with depression and found it difficult even to get out of bed. Given that she wasn't permitted to drive for three months, Lloyd felt isolated in her small town. Thankfully, friends and family rallied around to help her find a way forward. "Now I would say I'm in the best place I've been," Lloyd said. "I go back and volunteer [at the Mother and Baby Unit] and do the moms' nails. It's healing and rewarding at the same time." Lloyd has also built an online platform to raise awareness and support others. "The response has been positive, and I hope to grow this and go on to do more advocacy work to help better maternal care for mental health," Lloyd said. To mothers who might be struggling, Lloyd offered this message: "Whether you've just given birth, or you are three years into your motherhood journey, you are doing amazing. "Even if you're struggling with your mental health and you're just scraping by every single day, know that you are enough for your baby, and nothing can change that. "There is light out there, and if you are in the darkness, there is a way out. It takes time and work, but you've got this," Lloyd said.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
B.C. reinstates coverage of $1M drug for girl with rare condition
British Columbia's minister of health says the province has reinstated coverage for an expensive drug used by a Vancouver Island girl with a rare and terminal genetic disorder. Josie Osborne said in a statement issued Thursday that Charleigh Pollock, who recently turned 10, will once again receive coverage for Brineura, a drug to treat neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis type 2, also known as CLN2 or Batten disease. Osborne said last month that the girl's condition had reached the point where it met criteria to discontinue using the $1-million-per-year medication. Pollock's family and several experts and physicians had argued that Brineura was improving her quality of life. Osborne said Thursday that Pollock's coverage has been reinstated and will be available to the girl "for as long as the treating physician and the family deem it appropriate." "I continue to strongly believe that decisions about care should be made by health experts to ensure they are based on the best available evidence," Osborne said in a statement. "The letter I received today from Batten disease experts confirms there is significant disagreement between health experts on Brineura, and it is not acceptable that Charleigh and her family suffer as a result of that disagreement about the use of Brineura for Batten Disease." Osborne's spokesperson said Pollock's family has been told about the decision. Funding for the drug was approved when Pollock was three years old. Pollock is one of 13 children in Canada and the only person in B.C. with the disorder, which results in multiple seizures a day.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Ontario announces funding for Windsor physicians providing care to the unhoused in shelters
The Ontario government has committed up to $3.8 million to a physician group in Windsor that provides health-care services to people in homeless shelters in the city and to some people who have housing but require support. The money has allowed Windsor Shelter Health Associates to expand from two physicians working a total of around nine hours a week to 11 physicians working six days a week, said medical director Jennifer Bondy. It's also allowed them to build a team of family physicians, addiction medicine physicians, palliative care physicians, an infectious disease physician and psychiatry, Bondy said. "I used to see a lot of wound care at the very beginning before we were funded in any way," Bondy told reporters at an event Wednesday announcing the funding, which she said began flowing at the start of 2024. "Now we are able to regularly see people for their continuous care needs like diabetes, for example. Or if they might have a primary psychiatric diagnosis, we can see them for their schizophrenia, for example, and really make a dent in the care delivery." Bondy began providing services to unhoused people in 2021, partly as a volunteer and partly while working for the Canadian Mental Health Association, she told CBC. New funding model Another physician joined a couple of years ago, she said. Then at the start of 2024, Bondy's service received recognition under a new provincial funding model called the Homeless Shelter Alternate Payment Plan, which does not require patients to roster with physicians and which compensates physicians both for their time and for the complexity of their patients' needs, she said. "We've been able to go from three half-day clinics a week to multiple half-day clinics across five different sites," she said. Shelter Health serves people at the Salvation Army Men's Emergency Shelter, the Homelessness and Housing Help Hub (H4), the Welcome Centre Shelter for Women and Families, the Downtown Mission of Windsor, and Journey Home Hospice, according to a news release from the province. It also provides services to people who have housing but require support. Shelter Health secured Interprofessional Primary Care Team Funding through Ontario Health in the spring of 2024 to supplement the physician funding, Bondy said. That funding flows through the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), she added. CMHA Windsor CEO Nicole Sbrocca said providing health care in shelters isn't just compassionate; it's evidence-based. "When care meets people where they are at, we prevent crises," she said at the news conference. "We build trust, and we contribute to healthier individuals and a stronger community." Program getting results: mental health association CEO Over the past fiscal year, the interprofessional team has provided more than 5,000 visits across the shelter sites, Sbrocca said. Physicians see an average of 200 unique patients per month. What's more, she said, there has been a reduction in emergency department use for issues that are being addressed on site in the shelters, and doctors are seeing an improvement in medication adherence. There have also been success stories, Sbrocca said. "We have attached nearly 200 people to primary care," she said. "We've achieved housing for individuals, and we have made meaningful steps forward in terms of wellness and recovery on an individual basis." Asked what the funding means to the program, Bondy told reporters it means "sustainability." "It means that we are going to be able to continue to provide services," she said. "We know we can future plan, and we can ensure that we have programs that are developed with our partners knowing that we're going to be able to continue to do the work that we're doing." Last month, the Windsor Essex By-Names Prioritized List for housing showed 899 households were experiencing some form of homelessness, of which 682 households, or 75.8 per cent, were experiencing long-term or chronic homelessness, according to data provided by the City of Windsor.
