B.C. woman says 'door is shut in our faces' as she fights for sister's mental health care

For the past 13 years, Kala Hooker has tried every legal option to be involved in the care of her sister Kora-lea, who has bipolar disorder and has been in and out of hospitals and treatment centres across B.C., Alberta, the U.S., Haiti and Jamaica.

Hooker, who lives in Creston, B.C., has power of attorney, signed confidentiality disclosure agreements, community health directives and a legal plan outlining Kora-lea's future treatment wishes.

But despite that documentation, Hooker says she is still often blocked from speaking to her sister's care teams when she's admitted to hospital in B.C. and elsewhere because of concerns about patient privacy.

"For years and years, I've been trying to help her and advocate on her behalf and feel completely shut out. There's so much red tape, and [I] feel like the door is just shut in our faces," Hooker said.

Kora-lea Hooker, a former running back for the Canadian national women's football team, is fully on board with her sister's involvement.

She told CBC that during a manic state, she is "very vulnerable" — one recent episode resulted in her sleeping on the streets of Edmonton in the middle of winter.

"When I'm not able to take care of my mental health, it's family that comes in and helps where they can, so I think it's important to have more communication between family and health-care professionals," Kora-lea Hooker said.

The Hookers are just the latest B.C. family to speak out about what they describe as a pattern of resistance among many health-care professionals to involve loved ones in a patient's care during a mental health crisis.

The Hookers reached out to CBC after hearing the story of Aaron Sanio, a 30-year-old Squamish man who died by suicide in 2021 not long after being released from involuntary care at Lions Gate Hospital.

Family members say they called the hospital numerous times during Sanio's stay, hoping to provide information about his history with mental illness and suicide attempts, but were never able to speak directly with someone involved in his care. They say they were not called when he was released.

'Having it on paper is not enough'

Some B.C. health authorities, including Lions Gate operator Vancouver Coastal Health, have policies directing staff to involve family members in mental health care whenever possible.

But policy doesn't always translate to practice, according to Elenore Sturko, the B.C. Liberal critic for mental health and addiction.

"Having it on paper is not enough. It's actually on-the-ground actions that are going to make the difference," she said.

"I go back, and I look at formal inquiries, and I look at coroners' reports, and I see we have a lot of solutions to some of the things that we're talking about, but they haven't been implemented."

Better communication with family members was one of the major recommendations to come out of a 2016 coroner's inquest into the suicide deaths of three patients shortly after their release from the psychiatric ward at Abbotsford Hospital.

Just this week, a coroner's jury in the inquest into the suicide death of Vancouver Const. Nicole Chan made similar recommendations while also calling for better communication between hospital staff and patients' regular health-care providers.

Sturko is a former police officer and said she saw far too many cases on the job where people in crisis are released from hospital shortly after being admitted without input from those who know them best.

"It keeps people in a perpetual cycle of suffering," she said.

Hardeep Thind, a regional manager for the B.C. Schizophrenia Society, told CBC that families hoping to have input on a loved one's care are often told it's not possible because of patient confidentiality.

But she said privacy concerns shouldn't completely prevent communication with families.

"The bottom line is professionals need to understand and realize that they can gain a lot of information and insight from a family member. There's a lot that can be said but still not breach confidentiality," Thind said.

Asked to comment on how family involvement policies are implemented in B.C., Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jennifer Whiteside sent a written statement that did not address the issue.

But she said the province is currently in the early stages of reviewing sections of the Mental Health Act to consider possible changes.

Meanwhile, the Hookers are still fighting to get Kora-lea the mental health support they say she desperately needs.

"My biggest fear is I'm going to get that call that my sister is dead," Kala Hooker said.

As for Kora-lea Hooker, she said, "I've lost quite a bit of hope in things getting better."