St Thomas mental health care in question

Emergency children’s mental-health services are lacking at St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital, a St. Thomas man argues.
And he’s refusing to pay a $45 ambulance bill in protest after his son was taken to the hospital last October. He feels his son didn’t receive the care required.
“I found dealing with what happened at the St. Thomas hospital very frustrating,” said father Shawn Southern.
He explained his 11-year-old son suffered an incident of mental distress and had to be taken to hospital.
Southern said he requested that his son be taken to Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre, in London, but was told by paramedics they could transport him only to STEGH.
“We took him to St. Thomas hospital, hoping they’d take a look at him and them send him to Vic (Victoria Hospital in London),” Southern said.
While at the St. Thomas hospital, they waited for hours to see a psychologist who, after speaking with Southern’s son, gave him the number for a crisis counsellor and sent him home.
“By the time a mental-health professional got down to talk to him, he was perfectly calm,” Southern said. “They (psychologists) are not child psychologists and weren’t there to deal with children’s mental-health issues. They deal with adult issues. He wasn’t really able to do much.”
A few weeks later, Southern’s son experienced another mental-health distress incident, but instead of going to STEGH, they went to London.
As a result of that visit, Southern said, his son was admitted and is now receiving treatment.
St. Thomas Times-Journal