‘We’re on the frontlines’: New Westminster trustee wants schools included in B.C. mental health review

As B.C. prepares for a sweeping review of its Mental Health Act, one local school trustee says a crucial voice is missing from the conversation: education.

Danielle Connelly, a New Westminster school board trustee and chair of the the British Columbia School Trustees Association Metro branch, is calling on the province to ensure schools are at the table for any mental policy reform — warning that students are already slipping through the cracks.

“We are at a crisis point,” said Connelly. “There just are not the supports. Kids are not getting diagnosed in a timely manner, wait lists are upwards of two years long, and counsellors are burning out.”

Connelly says the province currently funds a counsellor-to-student ratio of 1:693 — a figure unchanged since before the pandemic.

While the NDP government committed $5 million over five years to student mental health in 2021, Connelly says New Westminster receives just $52,000 annually from that pot.

The funding is set to expire after the 2025-26 school year, with no new commitments announced.

“We need meaningful, reliable, dedicated, long-term investments…not just grants that dissappear after a year or two.”

Connelly is also pushing for the full rollout of Integrated Child and Youth Teams, which provide wraparound mental health services in schools. Connelly says only 14 of B.C.’s 60 school districts currently have access to these teams.

Her concerns come more than a week after Premier David Eby announced a full review of the Mental Health Act in response to the Lapu-Lapu Day tragedy, where 11 people were killed and dozens more injured after police say a 30-year-old man drove an SUV into a crowd of people at the festival.

The suspect, Kai-Ji Adam Lo, had a history of mental health issues and was under care through the Mental Health Act at the time of the attack.

While the review is expected to focus on how the Act governs involuntary treatment and public safety, education leaders like Connelly say it’s a missed opportunity if schools aren’t included.

“Kids are in schools for an awful lot of their lives…and we’re on the frontlines and working with students and see things manifesting at earlier ages. So I think just having that frontline experience, bringing that to the table, to be part of the discussion and where some interventions could be happening in schools specifically.”

1130 NewsRadio has reached out to the province for comment.