It’s not the way Jillian Coxhead wanted her family to start the holidays.

“Right now we’re all dealing with it in our own way,” explains Coxhead. “That’s how we’re going to do it for now.”

Coxhead’s family took her father off life support after he attempted to take his own life.

Michael Coxhead struggled with depression since he was a teen and had tried to take his own life on two separate occasions.

In November he told his daughter he was having suicidal thoughts again and wanted to seek help.

She took him to outpatients and her father asked if he could stay overnight.

“They should have probably taken him seriously when he showed up there in tears and said he had a plan,” she says. “He told them exactly what he was going to do, and he did exactly that the next day.”

He was taken to hospital in Halifax, but doctors told his family there was nothing they could do.

Coxhead says outpatients sent her father home and gave him a phone number to call if he needed help.

When he dialed the number, he was told the phone number was out of service.

“I was appalled. I called it myself and it just comes up, ‘this number is not in service.’”

Annapolis Valley Health says it can’t discuss the details of the case because of a patient privacy act, but in a statement a spokesperson says the hospital is reviewing the case and has contacted the family to offer support.

It’s support the family says is too late.

“As far as I’m concerned, if they were going to reach out, they should have reached out to my Dad. I didn’t need to be reached out to, my Dad did.”

Coxhead says she isn’t looking for compensation. She just wants to see better resources and more support for people with mental health problems.

She hopes people who have experienced similar thoughts and surpassed them can help others.

 

If you have questions or concerns about suicide, if you know someone who may be at risk, there are places to turn.

If you’re concerned about a young person, you can call Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868 or visit www.kidshelpphone.ca.

There is also a mobile crisis team available at 902-429-8167.

For support after suicide by someone you know go to, www.teenmentalhealth.org.

There are many resources available.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Matt Woodman