featured-image

Two years ago Mike and Fiona Roth lost their daughter Kaitlyn to suicide. On Tuesday, the couple helped launch that was not available to their daughter. It gave them reason to smile.

“We are motivated by making sure no one goes through what we went through in getting care for their loved one,” Mike Roth said. “We have said right from day one, we aren’t going to be bitter. We are going to make this better for everyone else.



” Kaitlyn was 20 when she ended her life. She and her family endured long wait times in the emergency room, as well as other barriers to her care. Mike and Fiona Roth applaud a new walk-in centre for mental health after their daughter Kaitlyn died by suicide.

The new service is a walk-in centre for people experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis. It’s designed not as an emergency room, but as a warmer place where someone in distress can meet privately with a nurse or social worker or clinician or peer. The paperwork is light; the decor is home-like.

There’s a kitchen and a couch and a fireplace and floors you might find in a living room, as well as private meeting rooms. The goal is to provide somewhere that is not a hospital ER for people in need of specialized care, because emergency rooms can be crowded, noisy, overwhelming places. “This is a beautiful solution for people to find an access point, a comfortable entry into care where they’re understood,” said Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy, a social worker by professio.

Back to Beauty Page