FOG BLOG NB NEWS LOG: LEXI DAKEN'S PARENTS' FIGHT FOR BETTER MENTAL HEALTH IN NB:

Lexi Daken loved to ski and play softball, travel and joke around. A 97 per cent wasn't enough, it had to be 100 – and she mused about going into medicine.

But her parents say there was something troubling the 16-year-old.

They noticed their fun-loving daughter wasn't herself last summer, a couple of months after the pandemic began."We tried to get, you know, typical teenager, they don't want to talk to their parents right?" her father said. "So, once school started, then she seen the guidance counsellor."

Sitting at their kitchen table on Thursday, her parents Shawna Betts and Chris Daken, and sister Piper, shared that Lexi attempted suicide in November.

They say she was given a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and depression after a trip to the emergency room at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton.But, after that, her parents say trying to get any more help through New Brunswick's health system was extremely challenging.

Then, last Thursday, Lexi's guidance counsellor felt she should go back to the ER.

According to text messages sent between Lexi and her father, she got to the hospital around 1 p.m., accompanied by the counsellor.

"I said okay, I'm in Saint John right now, I will head out and I'll be there shortly," Daken said.

But because of COVID-19 protocols, Daken and the school employee weren't allowed to trade places. So, he said the counsellor remained with Lexi and the two waited to see a psychiatrist."Our intentions were, once she seen the psychiatrist at the time to get her admitted to the hospital and really get her the help she needed," he said. "But she never got to see the psychiatrist."

According to text messages and a phone call, Lexi was told at about 8:30 pm that a psychiatrist was no longer available and that staff would have to contact the psychiatrist on-call.

Her family says, she didn't want to be a burden.

"What they told us at the time is that we'll send off a referral to mental health and you should hear from them in two weeks. And I have yet to hear from them, even from back in November."

"Even with the second trip to the ER we still haven't received any contact from mental health," Betts said.

Lexi died by suicide on Wednesday morning.

Her family says had she gotten the help she needed last Thursday, she would still be alive.