The father of a Kelowna, B.C. teenager who died by suicide last fall is speaking out on Bell Let’s Talk day, saying it was his daughter’s wish that her parents talk about why she took her own life.
At 18, Georgia McAlpine was about to embark on an eight-month trip volunteering in Africa to help women and children in developing countries. Photos hanging on the walls of her family’s home capture a beaming young woman posing with her siblings, her parents, at graduation.
“All she wanted to do in her life was to help other people,” said Cam McAlpine, Georgia’s father. “She was a little bird that wanted to help the world.”
But on the day of her flight to Africa, she confided in her parents that she’d been suffering from mental illness and wasn’t going to be able to get on the plane.
“It was a surprise to us, we thought for the most part she was just going through the usual typical teenage stuff,” McAlpine said. “She felt that if she went [to Africa] and it didn’t make things better for her, she was prepared to take her own life.”
For the next year, her parents and siblings tried to help Georgia through the pain of deep depression and crippling anxiety. She began working with a counsellor, was on medication, and seemed to be doing better – but then started suddenly to go downhill.
Last October, just before her 19th birthday, Georgia took her own life.
“Please tell the truth about why I died. We need to open up the conversation," Georgia wrote in a suicide note to her parents.
“I can’t even describe the pain that we went through as parents, siblings, as a family – it’s indescribable,” her father, tearing up.
“She wasn’t able to pull herself out of that hole, and the supports she probably needed sooner rather than later just weren’t there.”
Dr. Steve Mathias is the executive director of Foundry, a mental health drop in centre in Vancouver. Stories like Georgia’s are tragically all too common, he says.
“It’s unfortunate [Georgia] wasn’t able to access the health services she needed beforehand,” said Mathias.
“The vast majority of young people - just like adults - often believe the problem is just going to go away. So what we want to do is break down all the barriers to finding out what might be going on.”
The premise behind Foundry is simple: youth ages 12 to 24 can come in with any issue that might be bothering them and start a conversation.
The Vancouver location is being used as a prototype for five other centres set to open this year in Abbotsford, Campbell River, Kelowna, Prince George, and the North Shore.
Georgia's father says he was thrilled when he heard about Foundry’s work.
“When I heard what they were doing I was ecstatic,” he said. “The fact is people like Georgia are falling through the cracks, there’s a gap there between being a child and being an adult – we experienced that firsthand.”
He said he thought Georgia would have wanted him to share her story with the media.
“She was in so much pain for so long…I wish she could have been here to talk to you,” he said.
While it’s too late to save his daughter, McAlpine believes her story could help save others.
“I hope that if her legacy is going to be anything, it’s that she got her friends, family, and community to talk about what we can do to improve situations for all the other people who are suffering,” he said.
“It’s only by talking about [mental health] that we’re going to actually start to make any improvements.”
With files from CTV Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson