Still Crying for Help: The Failure of Our Mental Healthcare Services

A 32-year-old man with mental illness ends his life. Could he have been saved? What care did he receive? Did antipsychotics help or are they a modern-day straitjacket?

Ferid Ferkovic, the author’s son, committed suicide after being refused admission to a Montreal hospital. Throughout treatment, he and his family dealt with changing diagnoses, drugs with devastating side effects, and insensitive health care professionals.

The suicide of Sadia Messaili’s son Ferid Ferkovic, who immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of 12, is the starting point in a challenging quest for truth. First about our failing mental health care system. Then about justice. And finally about better ways to rekindle hope among people who are “still crying for help.”

Sadia Messaili, born in Morocco, is a primary school teacher and special needs educator. She describes her personal journey as that of “a good immigrant wherever she has lived: Algeria, Croatia, Austria and Montreal, Québec.” Her first book about forced migratory wandering is titled La route de la dignité.

Aleshia Jensen is Montreal translator. Her translations include Explosions by Mathieu Poulin and Prague by Maude Veilleux, co-translated with Aimee Wall, both published by QC Fiction.