Visits with a psychologist at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health unit at Manitoba’s Children’s Hospital is what supports 11-year-old Pacey Wall in coping with his rare disease and ongoing treatment.
“They (psychologists) are as important as his other healthcare team doing his surgeries and making sure he’s nourished with TPN,” says Pacey’s mom, Kim.
Pacey has intestinal failure, has had more than 35 surgeries, and now can only receive nutrition through IV administered TPN (total parenteral nutrition) that runs through implanted ports in his chest and stomach.
He sometimes cracks jokes about being a frequent flyer of the Children’s Hospital and about his ability to eat whatever he wants because he sham feeds, meaning he tastes but then spits out any food in his mouth because ingesting it would mean another trip to Children’s Emergency in excruciating pain.
Other times, Pacey has a harder time laughing and recognizes that he needs mental health support.
Kim says he has mental health “rough patches” when he has infections or other challenges with ports, or long stays in hospital that mean he will miss school, birthday parties with friends and holiday events with family. He has had painful IV skin pokes that have caused PTSD for the young patient, and some of the medications he has had to take for his ongoing care have also had mental health side effects.
“The mental health appointments about every two months for a one-hour check-in give him goals and new tools to cope when he is feeling overwhelmed and not in control,” says Kim.
“The tools help not just him, but our whole family to manage our frustration over an unexplainable disease.”
Kim and Pacey are grateful to donors who support mental health for children and adolescents, like Sobeys Inc. that started in-store point of sale donations as part of the Family of Support initiative. Family of Support funds innovative mental health programs to help kids while they’re still kids, giving them the best possible chance to thrive and partnered with 13 Children’s Hospital Foundations across the Canada to fund and implement a diverse range of innovative local child and youth mental health programs. These programs are working to decrease stigma, strengthen families, and help more children and youth, like Pacey, access the help they need.
In Manitoba, this type of donor funding for mental health can support research at Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba into mental health challenges specifically impacting children and youth. It also helps preventative programs like Child Life specialists that help make a child’s stay in hospital less stressful, and it supports improvements such as play spaces within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health unit, and mental health triage spaces within Children’s Hospital Emergency Department. To continue support for mental health needs for kids, please donate at goodbear.ca.
