Rural B.C. families describe broken mental health system one month after Tumbler Ridge shooting
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One month after a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, rural families are confronting a mental health care system that has long failed them. BC reporter Andrea Woo, speaking on the Globe and Mail’s podcast, The Decibel, described what that failure looks like up close.
Before the shooting, Tumbler Ridge had a clinician and counselor visiting once a week — appointments residents said were “often cancelled due to weather, road conditions, or burnout.” Anything more intensive meant travelling elsewhere.
“It’s a labyrinth of paperwork with long wait times,” one resident told Woo. “By the time you receive a call to book an appointment with a specialist, that appointment can be six to 18 months away — and that’s an optimistic wait time.”
A stark urban-rural divide
“There is quite a stark difference,” Woo said. A 2022 BC Medical Journal article found Vancouver had 43.1 psychiatrists per 100,000 people versus just 5.3 in the northeast — and the research concluded that rural residents often experience worse mental health outcomes.
The shooter’s grandparents said they had tried for years to get her help, and “nothing seemed to be working,” they told Woo. One Tumbler Ridge mother described a similar ordeal: three days in a Dawson Creek emergency department, a transfer to Prince George — four and a half hours away — for crisis stabilization, then a year-long wait before her child was admitted to an inpatient program 13 hours from home.
Funding that doesn’t reach patients
Another child’s ‘Category H’ designation — for serious mental illness — triggered funding for up to an hour of daily support. But because it flows to school districts rather than students, the child received just 15 minutes a day. The mother pulled her kids from public school. “She discovered that it was actually much easier to access supports that way,” Woo said. “Her kids are doing quite well — they’ve been able to get the assessments, the diagnoses, and the specialist access they need faster.”
Virtual care has helped at the margins, but “not everyone is comfortable with virtual options,” Woo noted. “And in a place like Tumbler, which made the news because a beaver chewed through power lines, virtual care options can also be precarious.”
What comes next
The Canadian Mental Health Association called the province’s $131 million commitment to involuntary treatment a missed opportunity. “Without growing public investment, people will delay or forgo care until they reach crisis — at far greater human and financial cost,” said Johnny Morris, CEO of the association’s BC division.
The province has announced steps forward — expanding its Foundry youth mental health network and adding psychiatric beds in Prince George and Dawson Creek. BC’s chief coroner has also announced a formal inquest focused on “how individuals in crisis are identified and supported” in rural communities.
As Woo noted, some residents may not be seeking help right now — but they will need it. “Communities affected by mass casualty events like this,” she said, “often need long-term mental health, grief, and bereavement supports.”
