Avoidable Suicides spark outcry; celebrated mental health advocate urges Premier to investigate and citizens to push for mental health care reforms;

PORT HOPE, ONTARIO, CANADA, August 21, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Bill Wilkerson, Executive Chairman, Mental Health International, based in Port Hope, Ontario, near Toronto, put mental health on the agenda of corporate Canada more than 20 years ago and in the process took his message to the US and Europe and spoke to business and professional groups across the world starting in 1998.

Most famously, Wilkerson, an eight-time award winner who was recognized by McMaster University in 2015 with an Honourary Doctorate of Laws, was the mental health partner of the Honourable Michael Wilson, fort more than two decades.

Former Minister of Finance of Canada and Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Wilson died in 2018 and Wilkerson now describes his efforts as “in service of Michael Wilson’s mental health legacy.”

In that light, Wilkerson has been looking into the excessive suicide rates in New Brunswick combined with murder-suicides. Men killing women. In doing so, concerned citizens, some in crisis, reached out to him by email and telephone to tell their stories of being treated poorly or not at all by hospitals in Saint John and Fredericton.

Wilkerson urged Premier Higgs to investigate these concerns. In one case, a young woman took her own life while in a general hospital’s psychiatric unit, another killed herself, a 16-year-old, after being left unattended for eight hours in a general hospital emergency wing.

Wilkerson has released a statement urging residents of New Brunswick (www.mentalhealthinternational.ca) to form a ‘Citizens Cabinet” to push for mental health care reforms in that province. He has also encouraged young people to come together to assess their experience with mental health services across Atlantic Canada. This is now happening.

Nationally, Wilkerson will be looking into how general hospitals in Canada are ‘accredited’ to deliver psychiatric care given the tragedies in New Brunswick.

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Refer: Bill Wilkerson, LL. D. (Hon) – Executive Chairman, Mental Health International, Centennial House, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. 001-905-885-1751 bill.wilkerson@mentalhealthinternational.ca

Bill Wilkerson
Mental Health International
+1 905-885-1751
bill.wilkerson@mentalhealthinternational.ca

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