Son’s suicide note shared at vigil

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This article was published 02/11/2015 (3957 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bonnie and George Bricker found something Sunday their son, Reid, missing since Oct. 24, left for them.

It was a suicide note.

The couple courageously shared it Sunday night with a crowd of about 300 people that gathered for a candlelight vigil on the stairs of the Manitoba legislature for Reid and to unite in seeking major changes in Manitoba’s Personal Health Information Act.

Reid, 33, hasn’t been seen since about 3 a.m. Oct. 24, when security cameras recorded his departure from the Health Sciences Centre emergency ward after staff released him. Reid was brought in by police on the night of Oct. 23 to HSC, his third hospital and third suicide attempt in 10 days.

“My son left us a suicide note, which we found today,” Bricker said, with her husband George and other family members gathered behind her. “And what it said at the very end was really important. And it’s really important that everybody knows this. It said, ‘Learn from my mistakes. From trying to take my life three times, that you need to be simple, be silent and don’t involve anyone.’ “

Bricker paused after she spoke those words. Several people in the crowd began weeping.

“Sorry, those are the hard, cold facts and they hurt,” she said. “You’re looking at me, and I look all strong but I have to be strong. I’ve got to fight this fight for my son and for all your sons and daughters and everybody you know and you love and your best friends, next-door neighbour. There’s a lot of people out there who don’t have a voice and need an advocate.”

Bricker said her family would be organizing petitions they will bring to community centres in Winnipeg. She asked members of the public to sign them. The petitions will be asking for major changes to the Personal Health Information Act so next of kin could be notified before a person in crisis is released from hospital.

Bricker said she didn’t know about the other two suicide attempts preceding the Oct. 23-24 events until her son decided to tell her. Reid told her his second attempt the previous Friday had involved him lying unconscious under a tree around noon in Whittier Park after an overdose. He told her he was at St. Boniface Hospital for eight hours and released on his own. He walked to his home in the Exchange District. Neither he nor anyone from the hospital notified any of his family members.

Reid was at Seven Oaks Hospital after his first suicide attempt.

Bricker said her family “doesn’t have a single clue” as to what happened to Reid and no one has come forward with any information. She asked downtown businesses with surveillance equipment to check their recordings on Oct. 24 after 3 a.m. and onward and call the police if they think they see Reid.

Bricker said staff at the hospitals her son visited were in difficult situations because her son is an adult, so provincial public health information privacy laws prevented staff from calling family or revealing information about his health situation.

“Until I stop breathing, I’m going to fight this fight until they fix it. I can’t live with myself if somebody else’s daughter or son winds up like mine.

“We need to change PHIA. We need to give the health-care professionals the tools so that they can make a discretionary choice that this has gone on far too long, and we have to call family member or a friend. He or she cannot be released on their own recognizance because they are too sick to help themselves.”

Bricker said her son’s mental-health issues began many years ago but “we didn’t know how to help him.”

“We tuck our children into bed, we tell them a story, we kiss them, we hug them, we tell them that we love them, we tell them to have sweet dreams. The truth is that children who have mental-health illness don’t have sweet dreams,” Bricker said. “He used to tell me all the time that he dreamed in colours… and that they were such scary dreams that sometimes he was afraid to take his meds that made him go to sleep at night.”

Bricker said she’s been told by Health Minister Sharon Blady the province will be looking at the issue promptly.

“In the meantime, the clock is ticking. Every drop of sand that falls through that time clock represents an individual who may not make it to daylight.”

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca